Charlotte Motor Speedway is developing ambitious plans to fill the area where its former Turn 2 grandstand once stood with a motorsports-themed mixed-use development that will cost in the high eight to low nine figures, according to sources.
Details on the retail elements of the plan from track owner and operator Speedway Motorsports Inc. were scarce. Sources, though, said a key component is a private area of the mixed-use development that will be called the Apex Club.
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Charlotte Motor Speedway tore down the Turn 2 grandstand, which seated 41,000 people.
Photo by: AP IMAGES
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The club would grant access to amenities such as a newly renovated road course at the speedway, a go-kart track, a gun range, clubhouse and other high-end features like entertainment and food and beverage options.
SMI, which sources said is buying up adjacent land that includes the Richard Petty Driving Experience offices as part of the effort, is targeting 300 membership spots in the Apex Club. One hundred of those will be for owners of condos in the development, while 200 will be sold for general access to the club. The 200 general-access members are looking at an initial buy-in fee of around $150,000, plus $25,000 in annual dues, sources said, while the 100 members who own condos would not incur the $150,000 buy-in fee but would pay $25,000 in annual dues.
SMI, which declined to comment, is working with a number of companies on the plan, including Connecticut-based real estate management company Readco, which didn’t return calls by press time. SMI also has worked on past improvements at CMS with Charlotte-based ai Design Group, but the firm declined to comment on whether it is involved in this project.
With a number of unresolved factors still in play, sources made clear that the plan for the mixed-use development is fluid and could still change. Nonetheless, sources added that the Apex Club part of it is far enough along where SMI is already out pitching potential members on the concept.
No other NASCAR track has such a setup, but there are similar projects in the U.S. at places like Atlanta Motorsports Park, which is a private club with a two-mile-long road course, a nearly mile-long go-kart track, garages, a clubhouse, hiking trails and more. SMI also eyed a somewhat comparable concept near Las Vegas in 2013, when Executive Chairman Bruton Smith announced that the company was considering building a replica of the famous German road course Nürburgring that would be open to individuals to drive on.
SMI has been trying to figure out what to do with the area at CMS for more than a year after announcing in late 2014 that it was taking down the Turn 2 grandstands, formerly called the Diamond Tower Terrace, which sat 41,000 people. The seat reduction took the track’s capacity from 134,000 to around 90,000.
The move is part of a wider trend throughout NASCAR that has seen fellow SMI track Atlanta Motor Speedway and tracks from rival operator International Speedway Corp., including Chicagoland, Darlington and Homestead-Miami Speedway, announce similar seat-reduction plans.
It’s unclear when CMS plans to unveil plans for the Apex Club and wider Turn 2 development.
