I don't know if you've set foot in the building at 501 North Dixon Street in Portland. But it's pretty much a dump. The good people working at the Blanchard Education Service Center are in charge of guiding policy that helps grow the young minds in our city -- and they deserve better digs.

The staffers there probably get their hopes up every time it's rumored that the Portland Public Schools headquarters might move to a nicer, updated facility. I'm not sure how you recruit the best educators and administrators you can when you're doing the recruiting from depressed digs. And so when the Portland Diamond Project extended an unsolicited offer for the site that included $80 million in cash and a solid relocation solution, this became about more than a baseball stadium. It became an opportunity for PPS to get a major win.

I hope they chase it down as a willing seller.

Guadalupe Guerrero, the superintendent of the district, wrote a letter on Friday in response to the offer from the baseball folks. Don't know if you know Guerrero, but I've watched him closely since he moved to Portland. He started his career in the classroom, as a bilingual elementary school teacher in the Bay Area. I like that. He has two Masters degrees from Harvard. I like that. Ask around about him and you get, "Smart guy," and, "His head is in the right place," and "He's really good; I don't know how Portland landed him." And I love that because I trust those who work closely with him more than I trust what I can see from the outside in.

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View the letter from Guerrero here:

In his letter, Guerrero welcomed the opportunity to look into whether this was a good deal for PPS. He pointed out what a terrific asset the building is. And he appeared to indicate that PPS would form a team focused on entertaining the offer, and potentially other offers. Also, of the current centrally-located headquarters site, he wrote: "I take its stewardship very seriously."

I grew up in a real estate household. I understand how a successful transaction works. It isn't about one side getting over on the other. A one-sided offer takes no brains to present. Getting a deal done is about putting together a proposal that works for both sides. Which is why I was so encouraged about the site at 501 North Dixon potentially turning into a gorgeous baseball stadium that would also include 8,000 apartments and some additional development. Further, though, I thought it wise that the proposal addressed the relocation of the school district headquarters.

The offer was written with flexibility. It opened a discussion. And frankly, anyone who has followed the plight of the schools in our state knows that an opportunity to close a deal, get relocated to an updated site and walk away with cash in your pocket just doesn't waltz through the door every day.

My only concern?

That the school board will be paralyzed by it.

The superintendent and school board would be wise to quickly assemble a team and explore the offer. They'll need commercial real estate help. They'll need advanced business acumen. But more than any of that, the executives will need open and opportunistic minds. Because if they pass on this offer, there's a very good chance that the headquarters of the cash-strapped district will be sitting in the same crumbling space a decade from now. And that should not happen.

The Portland Diamond Project will have other options. It's identified another site (Esco) and offered on it as well. There are a line of other commercial property suitors from just outside the city limits, eager to capitalize should the opportunity arise. And maybe it would be advantageous for the larger profile of our state if the downtown of Portland was stretched into Milwaukie, Beaverton or Tualatin by a new baseball ballpark. Other cities have done that successfully before. But before we get to all that, lets take Guerrero's letter at face value -- it feels like PPS is mobilizing, and that's a positive development.

I have requested an interview with Guerrero. A spokesperson scrambled over the weekend trying to put that together. And I'll write more when I hear more from Guerrero. But what I like most about the Portland Diamond Project and the Portland schools superintendent is that they're all smart people, with their heads seemingly in the right place. I could foresee a Major League Baseball ballpark that even includes a meeting room for the board to hold their meetings, should it want to keep those centrally located. I could foresee the district having access to the stadium for a handful of events. Just spit-balling here. The larger point: Work it out.

I thought it interesting that Guerrero went out of his way to note the central location of the headquarters. It's a smart negotiating point. But anyone who knows real estate understands that commercial real estate becomes more expensive as it creeps towards downtown. It's why the PPS team has already toured some outlying options. As much as you'd like the headquarters to be central to the city, good stewardship in this case might be the district pocketing millions that could shore up funding problems while sacrificing a few miles of location.

Is PPS a willing seller? Or will it end up like a ball of tangled yarn with conflicting agendas?

That's what we're about to find out. They received an unsolicited offer. They're faced with a shortage of funding. It's a golden opportunity. And I know that the school board is going to be met with a chorus of hissing and rolling eyes. People are going to view this pause by the district as a bunch of typical Portland bureaucrats bogging down what should be a no-brainer decision. But the hope here is that the delay is a short one.

Get the team in place, PPS. Announce that you're a willing seller for the right deal. Do it with a wise blend of alacrity and diligence. Set a reasonable timeline: Six months. That's all it takes if you have the right advisors. But whatever you do, don't spend nine to 12 months wringing your hands, twisted in a knot, proving the critics right.

Paralysis gets you nowhere, for sure.