ESCO Corp, One of Oregon’s Oldest and Largest Companies, Will Be Acquired by U.K. Competitor

Century-old manufacturer owns Northwest Portland property that MLB group wants to buy for potential baseball stadium site.

Montgomery Park building and ESCO Corp. (Tedder / Wikimedia Commons)
By Nigel Jaquiss

As news of  efforts to bring a Major League Baseball franchise to Portland emerges, backers of the project earlier this week announced their interest in acquiring the site of a former ESCO Corp. steel plant in Northwest Portland.

That possibility grew more complicated overnight as Weir Group, a Scottish manufacturer, announced a $1.29 billion purchase of ESCO, a privately held company founded in Portland in 1913.

ESCO makes mining and other heavy industrial equipment at 70 locations in 20 countries, according to the company's website. It closed a massive Northwest Portland foundry in 2016, creating a potential 15-acre development site between Northwest Vaughan Street and the Willamette River.

Bloomberg News first reported the proposed acquisition.

Craig Cheek, a retired Nike executive leading the Portland Diamond Project, the effort to bring MLB to Portland, tells WW his group will continue to pursue a purchase offer it previously presented to ESCO.

"The offer made to ESCO for the property has not changed with the sale," says Cheek says.

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.