Excerpt from Newark Star-Ledger 7.18.2004
http://www.nj.com/business/ledger/index.ssf?/base/business-7/1090127643101600.xml
Rev it up
New Jersey developer's Virginia motorsports complex drives economic model for
Millville.
Sunday, July 18, 2004 BY MATTHEW FUTTERMAN Star-Ledger Staff
DANVILLE, Va. -- People who lived here all their lives felt like this
hard-luck city would never catch a break. During the 1970s and 1980s
the textile companies took nearly 9,000 jobs from the once-prosperous
Dan River Mills and sent them to Latin America and Asia. Then the U.S.
government declared war on big tobacco. That forced the city's tobacco
refining plants to start cutting jobs. The economic fate of this city
of 50,000, tucked into the southwest corner of the state, didn't look
bright.
But New Jersey developer Harvey Siegel saw gold hidden in the hills a
dozen miles east of downtown. Siegel, a sports car fanatic, found his
calling when he decided to revive the Virginia International Raceway,
known as VIR.
The picturesque 3.27 mile road-course cut into the rolling countryside
closed in 1974 after a 18-year run as one of the country's top motor-
sports facilities. Thirty years later, VIR has raised the hopes of a
sad town.
Since VIR re-opened in 2000, this city has added six hotels. Its res-
taurants are packed on the weekends with race car drivers and fans of
everything from motorcycles to vintage auto shows. They savor the
racing world beyond the weekly Nascar Nextel Cup showdowns. They come
to experience what Siegel calls a "motorsports country club" and pump
roughly $3 million each year into the city's economy.
"We were losing our tobacco jobs, our textile jobs, everything was
leaving," Scott Bennett, owner of a funeral home and a lifelong resi-
dent, said as he sipped a beer at the packed Gaslight Grille last
Friday night. "I love that track. It's a blessing for this city."
Siegel's track record with VIR caught the attention of leaders in
Millville, in New Jersey's Cumberland County. Nearly 400 miles north
of VIR is a city that has suffered from the same economic trends, and
officials there are betting Siegel's next world class race course can
help revive a former industrial powerhouse.
Siegel's plans call for a $100 million VIR on 700 acres next to the
Cumberland County airport. Thunderbolt Raceway at New Jersey Motor-
sports Park would be part-county park, part-playground-for-the-rich,
and lure a growing niche of the motorsports world few New Jerseyans
are familiar with. ...
copyright Newark Star-Ledger 2004
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