The city of Montreal moved another step closer to making their well anticipated return to Major League Baseball on Monday morning when Luc Poirier, who is a local real estate developer in the city, announced that he had come out on top following the bidding process for the purchase of the former Montreal Children's Hospital building.

It is said that a price was not revealed following the news, though he did tell CJAD 800 that the building did cost him "tens of millions of dollars.”

At this time, it is unknown as to what ideas Poirier has for the future of the location, however, it is said that he is currently looking for partners who have the same vision and expertise in which he has from within to bring back the pride of the city ultimately hoping to make the project a success. 

​Prior to taking part in the bidding process, Poirier looked around at open locations for possible sites which specifically were wanted in the downtown core where there was potential to have a new stadium built that made sense to not only players, fans and front office advisers, but to all aspects of the community itself.

One other location to name in which was looked at includes the 120,000 square-meter property at the corner of René-Lévesque Boulevard and Atwater Street, which has now been deemed far too small to look at any further. 

Both idea’s were later brought up to Warren Cromartie who said in a statement, "Personally, I think it's a little too small," said Warren Cromartie, a former Montreal Expo who has led the Montreal Baseball Project, which aims to bring major league baseball to the city. 

"It's a great area, one of the first areas I lived in when I played for the Expos. It certainly has all the subway transportation with the highway and some places like that, but it's too small," said Cromartie.

Cromartie is the leading founder of the Montreal Baseball Project which has teamed up with ExposNation to encourage those around to help the dream become a reality once again.

ESPN’s Jonah Keri, who has written about the Expos in the past, also had the chance to speak out about the situation where he said, "It's a really small site. It's a cool location, obviously, if they could pull that off. But my sense is that is a pretty small and difficult site.”

Photo: Bing Maps

​In an interview with Global News, Poirier said, “If you look at the size, it’s very similar to Fenway Park.”

It’s a project roughly similar to one in San Diego that could replace the franchise in a city currently full of hope.

“It’s probably the best site for the new stadium, so it will be gorgeous like [the stadium in] San Diego,” he said.

As for the surroundings, he would want to follow in the way of the Montreal Canadiens home at Bell Centre by having condos built alongside the facility. There would also be room for retail such as things like condominiums and offices would become available. 

This gives off the impression that Poirier is the only one who believes that this could work as he said, “It’s a big, big site. It's probably the biggest site to redevelop in downtown Montreal.”

As noted by CJAD, Poirier, who expects a plan to be drawn up to take about a year, should have a done deal with the site completed by the upcoming spring of 2016.