Earnhardt Picks Location for Alabama Track: Gulf Coast Entertainment, L.L.C. announced Mobile County as the future home of Alabama Motorsports Park, A Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Speedway. The investor group controls approximately 3,000 acres in Mobile County, much of it located in the city of Prichard near Saraland and Chickasaw. The entertainment complex is planned to house four racing venues, retail shopping, hotels, restaurants, an RV resort, and other venues such as music theaters. The investors plan to open the complex for racing in the fall of 2009 and to be fully operational in 2010. (Alabama Motorsports Park PR)(12-15-2006)
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Earnhardt family members play key roles
Sunday, January 28, 2007
By KATHY JUMPER
Real Estate Editor
NASCAR Nextel Cup driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. is helping design the oval course at the Alabama Motorsports Park, A Dale Earnhardt Jr. Speedway in Prichard. His stepbrother, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Kerry Earnhardt, is in charge of the bass fishing lake.
Both are among the feature venues planned for a $624 million motorsports and entertainment complex on 3,000 acres along Alabama 158 off Interstate 65 in Mobile County.
"Kerry is a fishing maniac," said Rick Skelton, an Atlanta-based investor in the park and himself a driver and car owner in the Grand American Road Racing Association. "The oval track is Dale Jr.'s baby."
Investors have been refining the master plan for the motorsports park, according to former Mobile Mayor Mike Dow, president of the investor group, Gulf Coast Entertainment LLC.
There will be four race tracks: a 7/10-mile, lighted oval track; a 3/8-mile dirt track; a 3½-mile road course; and a quarter-mile drag strip. Investors are working with HOK Sport of Kansas City, Kan., a national designer of sports facilities.
The site includes 2.1 miles of frontage on Alabama 158, much of which will be developed with retail, restaurants, several hotels and gas stations, according to the investors. A lifestyle center with entertainment venues will be also be built in the park.
"The track is the magnet," Dow said.
All four of the tracks will be built at the same time, with construction starting in early 2008, he said, and the tracks should be operating by the first quarter of 2010.
"All of our original concepts are still intact, including a 5,000-space RV park," Dow said.
Other features of the complex include four or five music halls ranging from 500 to 3,000 seats, similar to those found in Branson, Mo. A water park or theme park is possible, as is a 7,000- seat arena. There will also be land that could accommodate soccer and other ball fields.
The motorsports park is estimated to employ 4,800 when it's fully operational, according to an economic impact study done by Semoon Chang, a University of South Alabama economist.
Chang said he based the study on the direct impact the park would have on the area, without using the typical multiplier effect. The multiplier effect, or spinoff spending, tries to evaluate what happens in an economy when visitors or workers at the park spend money locally on retail, food, cars and housing, Chang said.
"Some of the assumptions the investors made may be realistic and some may not be realistic," he said.
For example, they assume that the Branson-type music halls will have a 60 percent occupancy rate, he said.
"If we have a well-known country music star, then 60 percent will be no problem," he said. "But if they have a lesser known entertainer, then 60 percent could be an overestimation."
"The economic impact will be so large," said Chang, who has visited Branson and NASCAR tracks in Charlotte, N.C., and Talladega. "It's really a town-changing event."
The motorsports park is expected to draw in people from New Orleans to Panama City, according to the investors.
"Within an eight-hour drive there are 34 million people," said Steve Walker, the former director of downtown redevelopment for Mobile who is now working with Gulf Coast Entertainment.
"Why would we not be equally or better suited for this type of destination than in the middle of Missouri or the Carolinas?" Dow asked. "We have all the demographics, the condos at the beach and the nearby casinos."
Walker said that one of the advantages in working with HOK is that the company has insight into what works in such developments. Walkability between the venues is a key to the park, and that feature is not always available at other tracks due to the lack of land, he said.
Race professionals are watching the track's progress, according to Skelton, who is also one of the developers of Bon Secour Village, a mixed use development in Gulf Shores. "Quite a few race teams and businesses are interested in moving here, but it's wait-and-see. They want to see the rendering and the site plan.
"What I love (about the design) are the rows of race car team shops -- one will face the drag strip and one will face the road course. You can pull out of your garage and drive onto the pit lane. No other track in America has that."
The park will operate year-round, Dow said. Races will be scheduled for the tracks about 190 days a year, and when not in use the tracks will be leased to drivers and companies to test cars or for other purposes, he said.
Talk from some skeptics that the park won't be built "is normal," Dow said. "People could not visualize that a cruise ship would come here. But we have a transportation corridor that is huge. Now we're talking about getting a second ship, and we will."
Mobile County and Prichard officials support the motorsports park, although so far they have not been asked for incentives, officials said.
"I predict you're going to see other opportunities other than what was announced," said Mobile Commissioner Mike Dean. "There has been some good interest nationally for other opportunities that will blow us out of the water. We're putting ourselves on the map."
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SCENEDAILY
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 30, 2007
BY SCENEDAILY STAFF REPORT
Officials representing Alabama Motorsports Park released an updated site plan Friday for the 2,200-acre motorsports and entertainment complex. The track, billed as a Dale Earnhardt Jr. Speedway, is a property of Gulf Coast Entertainment, LLC.
The updated plan reflects changes to land use on the north and west sides of the property in Mobile County, Alabama.
"We made the site plan changes as part of the ongoing NEPA process in which we are working in close cooperation with the Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies," said Mike Dow, former Mobile mayor and managing member of Gulf Coast Entertainment.
The focal point of the plan is a 7/10ths-mile D-shaped asphalt speedway. The property will also include a 3-mile road course and karting track. The road course includes a straightaway that runs through the "Race City" retail area, providing a traditional road course and street circuit combination.
The complex is expected to be fully operational in 2010.
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Racetrack plans take shape
Earnhardt Jr. speedway releases new site plans
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