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Possible NASCAR track in Puget Sound area tantalizes officials

By Jane Hodges
Times Snohomish County bureau

	JIM BATES / THE SEATTLE TIMES Dennis O'Keefe, the ultimate NASCAR fan, has his Bothell house decked out in NASCAR memorabilia, mostly Jeff Gordon, from wall to wall. At each out-of-town race he attends, he spends about $1,000 on lodging, meals and shopping for himself and a companion.
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O'Keefe traveled to three NASCAR races this year and returned from Phoenix last week with $300 in gifts — diecast cars, dog toys and ceramic figurines of driver Jeff Gordan. When he goes to races he spends well over $1,000 for himself and a companion to stay at least three nights in a hotel, dine out and shop between 12-hour days at the track.

When he's not at the races, he buys products endorsed by NASCAR and its drivers — like Kellogg's cereals and Close-Up toothpaste — and cheers for Gordan, his favorite driver, when buddies stop by on Sundays to watch races on TV.

So if International Speedway Corp. (ISC) builds a one-mile racetrack here with seating for 70,000 to 80,000, O'Keefe will be thrilled.

He won't be the only one. Local government and economic-development officials know that where ISC builds tracks, NASCAR and other motor events typically follow, bringing with them fans who dump buckets of cash into local businesses and communities.

Officials familiar with ISC talks have said a track here could generate $87 million in revenue and $58 million in state and local taxes a year. It could also create 160 full-time and more than 2,000 seasonal jobs.

No deal has been signed, and ISC spokesman David Talley said the company also is considering Oregon in its Pacific Northwest site search. However, ISC officials have visited Washington at least three times since September to tour prospective 1,000-acre sites where the company could develop a track, parking area and space for related businesses.

Kansas Speedway economics Cost of construction: $250 million when stadium is built to 150,000 seats Developer funding: $130 million commitment from ISC State funding and incentives: $40 million of state transportation budget was shifted to projects around the speedway, about $25 million in bonds issued against future sales tax revenue, about $70 million in tax increment financing Number of events: About 200 in 2003 Number of visitors: About 650,000 are expected at the speedway this year; about 10 million to the tourism district around the speedway Revenue from events: $89 million in 2001 ($70 million from out-of-town visitors, $11 million from event participants, $8 million from local visitors) Revenue to surrounding four counties: $136.1 million increase in spending ($64.6 million as local income) Sources: Kansas Speedway; Kansas City Sports Commission & Foundation; Wyandotte Development

During that time, ISC met with leaders from Snohomish, Kitsap and Thurston counties. It has hired Seattle law firm Preston, Gates & Ellis to advise it on state business practices.

As talks continue, and local officials begin to see the economic potential, they've begun organizing to woo the track developer. The courtship has worked both ways: Last month, ISC hosted Snohomish and Kitsap county politicians and economic-development executives at the Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., so they could experience a race weekend and learn how Kansas and Wyandotte County worked with ISC to finance a $250 million race facility.

For once-ailing Wyandotte County, which merged its government with Kansas City's in October 1997, the 80,000-seat speedway and its 1.5-mile track have already been a boon — and could become more so when ISC expands track seating to the track's 150,000-seat limit.

Speedway President Jeff Boerger said the track draws fans from a six-state region. In addition to NASCAR events, it holds trade shows and community events.

For NASCAR events, the Speedway sells only four-race season tickets, and many ticket holders spend more than $1,500 on a long weekend at one of 1,200 RV spots on a nearby campground, a terraced area that provides track views, or on the speedway's in-field.

ISC not only built the racetrack, but it spurred the development of a 400-acre tourism district around the speedway that draws 10 million visitors a year to the state, Boerger said.

The tourism district, called Village West, includes two large retailers — a 188,000-square-foot Cabela's outdoor-supply store that is now the state's top tourist attraction and a 712,000-square-foot Nebraska Furniture Mart owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Group — as well as a forthcoming luxury mall expected to contain a minimum of 600,000 square feet of shopping and a planned movie theater.

A Hampton Inn opened last summer in the district, joining Great Wolf Lodge, which has an indoor water park, and a planned Anniversary Inn, which will offer themed hotel rooms. Famous Dave's Barbecue has opened and will soon get competition from an Applebee's, scheduled to open next month, and a Longhorn Steakhouse.

The area is also home to a new baseball field and team — the Kansas City T-Bones — who kicked off their 2003 season with a schedule that includes 45 home and 45 away games.

Kansas in the West?

	ROBERT LABERGE / GETTY IMAGES The Kansas Speedway has a 1.5-mile track and seats 80,000 — with plans to expand to 150,000. The track and surrounding tourist facilities are being pitched as a model for a track in the Puget Sound area.

"They want to redo Kansas here," said Jeff Sax, a Snohomish County councilman who traveled to Kansas in October and now chairs a county committee to recruit the racetrack developer. "They want to see if there is a political will (here) to make the things happen that need to happen."

Sax said Cabela's could accompany an ISC track. Cabela's spokesman Joe Arterburn confirmed that the company sent executives to Washington this fall to research Seattle-area sites, but he said a new store could happen with or without a new speedway.

Major NASCAR events bring people who spend lots of money. The Kansas City Sports Commission & Foundation estimates that out-of-town visitors to the Kansas Speedway spent more than eight times as much as locals — $69.6 million versus $8.5 million — on dining, shopping, cars, tickets, concessions and other items associated with events.

If ISC develops a track in Washington, it would require state involvement and legislation for financing, land-use and road-

improvement projects. If the state were to replicate the Kansas formula, it would have to reprioritize transportation projects paid for by the nickel gas tax and provide approval so counties could rezone and sell land to the developer.

Jim Thompson, president of economic-development agency Wyandotte Development, said ISC decided to build a track in Kansas City in August 1997, just four months after its first conversation with local government officials.

"When they set their mind to move, they move," Thompson said.

By December of that year, the county and ISC had drafted a development agreement for public comment. In 1998, ISC sent executives to sit in on a legislative session during which lawmakers approved several laws to help the track's development.

ISC will spend about $130 million on the $250 million track, while the state has shifted $40 million within its transit budget and provided $95 million in financing, Thompson said. Based on this financing, the track's arrival created no new tax burdens for residents. Among the legislation or decisions Kansas made to enable the speedway were these:

• Legislation to extend tax-increment financing deals to 30 years instead of 10.

• Legislation to allow the use of $25 million in "Star" (sales tax revenue) bonds, which are issued against anticipated sales tax revenue of major retailers, in order to create the tourism district.

• Legislation to exercise eminent domain to buy 146 residential lots at 125 percent of fair market value and farmland at cost.

• Approval to reprioritize $40 million in road-improvement projects in the state transit department's $5 billion budget.

Kansas economic-development executives say ISC is an organized, focused developer that wants community support. After buying out homes to clear land for the project, it paid three school districts that lost students a total of $125,000 a year for four years to compensate, Thompson said. ISC and NASCAR let local charities run concession stands during races so money returns to the community. Thompson said some groups make $10,000 to $12,000 a race this way.

Where Washington stands

State officials familiar with the talks say it's premature to discuss a deal because ISC hasn't identified a specific site in Washington. Martha Choe, director of the state Department of Community Trade and Economic Development, referred questions about the state's involvement to ISC, citing the talks' confidentiality.

Local economic-development officials, meanwhile, are promoting land in their territory while also trying to help each other.

"Regionalism is very important here," said Richard Chapman, vice president of corporate advisory services at the Economic Development Council of Seattle & King County.

While King County doesn't have enough open space for a speedway, Chapman said his agency is trying to help other counties attract the developer.

"If we land this in our state, even if it's not in King County, out of the $200 million (in annual revenue), we'll get about $50 million," he said.

Dennis Matson, executive director of the Economic Development Council of Thurston County, said he understands his county is "in third place" behind other locations in Kitsap and Snohomish counties.

"Our sites were a little too far south for them," Matson said.

Kitsap County officials would not comment.

Within Snohomish County, Sax confirmed that officials are promoting two areas to ISC — one area along Highway 2 west of Monroe, the other between Marysville and the south end of Arlington Municipal Airport.

While planned road improvements would make the Monroe site favorable, land around Highway 2 would need substantial rezoning. The Marysville-Arlington area would be easier to rezone, Sax said. A site along Highway 530 proposed by Darrington in September is of less interest to ISC, local officials believe.

Puget Sound business leaders are getting used to the idea that a major motor-sports track could be a simple way to supplement an economy built on aviation, biotech and software.

"We've been talking about high-tech jobs, but this would create a real balance," said Kathy Lombardo, a senior vice president at CH2M Hill who recently discussed the track at a meeting of the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce, which she chairs. "We need to diversify the state of business in Washington."

Fans of motor sports just want to see a race in their back yard.

Said O'Keefe, the Bothell NASCAR fan: "I'll do anything to get a racetrack in this state."

Jane Hodges: 425-745-7813 or jhodges@seattletimes.com

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