Earnhardt track awaits financing

PRICHARD — The faltering economy has driven them to nontraditional sources, but race track developers hope by summer's end to have complete financing for the $640 million Alabama Motorsports Park, a Dale Earnhardt Jr. Speedway, off Interstate 65 in Prichard.
``We've examined a number of options, and there are several we are tracking,'' including private money, said Bill Futterer of PSE-3, Partners In Sports and Entertainment, a Raleigh, N.C., marketing firm working on the project. ``We feel confident we are going to secure financing during the summer.''
Gulf Coast Entertainment, a group of 30 investors, plans to build three tracks — a 7/10-mile oval with 75,000 seats, a karting track, and a road course — plus an RV park and basic infrastructure at the 2,400-acre site along Ala. 158.
``We want to secure the anchor elements, such as the tracks, and make sure the rest of the site is developer-ready,'' Futterer said.
Investors are counting on attracting others to develop the entertainment and shopping venues envisioned in a complex they say could eventually provide 4,800 permanent jobs.
NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his race driver brother, Kerry Earnhardt, and sister, Kelly Earnhardt Elledge, remain on board with the project, Futterer said. The investors give regular updates to the members of one of NASCAR's most recognizable families.
Developers have permits in hand, and once they get financing, the next step will be ``the shovels,'' according to Mike Dow, former Mobile mayor and the managing member of the investor group.
Dow worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for 18 months to obtain permits. The developers reduced the scope of the project to answer the corps' environmental concerns.
Dow also pushed for legislation, sponsored by state Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, D-Mobile, that would have allowed creation of an economic development district able to issue tax-exempt bonds for construction of the facility. The bonds would be payable over 20 years, with sales taxes collected in that district designated to cover payments.
The effort failed. Dow said the money would have been used for the nationally branded retail and entertainment venues the investors hope will make the park a destination.
``We want something sustainable that will bring millions of people to our region,'' Dow said.
Still, he added, ``the project will go forward, with or without'' the bond money.
Mobile County Commissioner Stephen Nodine said he supports the race track, as long as it is funded by private investment.
``If we continue to give away tax revenues to generate private industry, slowly but surely we will erode the budgets of counties and cites across the state,'' he said.
Projects such as the race track or the Spanish Fort Town Center, anchored by Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World off U.S. 90, increase public safety and infrastructure liability, which is paid for by the taxpayers, Nodine said.
Futterer said investors will try to get the state's help when it comes to putting in roads or traffic lights leading to the park.
Commercial developers say the current soft economy and the difficulty in obtaining financing could make it tough to draw additional development at the site for as many as three years.
``With higher interest rates coming, possibly next year, and a little bit more inflation, it's hard to make those numbers work,'' said Richard Weavil of The Weavil Co. in Mobile.
Laura Paquelet of PSE-3 disagreed.
``Once we announce the funding, we will have developers coming out of the woodwork,'' she predicted.
The track was originally scheduled to open in 2010, but has been delayed until 2011.
``I think everybody in business around the United States gulped last fall,'' Futterer said. ``If you had a project on the drawing board, you swallowed hard. Given that, the progress we've made has been very good.''