Courier-Post Staff



Sketch provided
An artist’s rendering depicts one of the buildings at Thunderbolt Raceway, which is expected to open next April.

THE DETAILS
Size: 707 acres to be sold to developers for $3.7 million

Cost of Project: $100 million

Built-out: five to 10 years

Grants: $5 million/Casino Reinvestment Development Authority; $3 million/Economic Development Authority; 2 percent boost in sales tax on goods and services sold at the tract to generate money for infrastructure.

Concessions:

15-year tax abatement

Preserve 100 acres for bird habitat, plus create noise buffers and adjust start times



MILLVILLE
After 20 years and nearly as many proposals, construction on an upscale, multifaceted $100-million motorsports park here is scheduled to begin in a few weeks and open next April.

Motorheads alert: Not only will the park have tracks for cars, go carts and off-road vehicles; it will even be possible to buy a $400,000 condo in the thick of the noise and exhaust fumes.

Called Thunderbolt Raceway, it will sit on 707 acres of vacant, city-owned land, adjacent to the 1,000-acre Millville general aviation airport.

Officials are touting it as a mega-tourist destination that will fuel the city's downtown restaurants and galleries and jump start economic recovery in Cumberland County.

The park, which is expected to employ about 1,500, could generate 6,000 indirect jobs and pump $229 million into the area within five years, according to projections from the Rowan University Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

"The park will hold six to eight professional races a year, but its real bread and butter will be in amateur drivers and car clubs who want to race their Porsches, Corvettes and Ferraris," said Donald Ayres, Millville's economic development director.

"The same people with the fast cars often fly their own planes, so there is synergy between the airport and the track. We're hoping that well-heeled crowd will then spend more money in the region."
Millville is also planning a 300-acre industrial park next to the track creating a 2,000-acre hub of transportation, commerce and recreation.

Millville has reached an agreement with the New Jersey Audubon Society and other environmental groups that sought to stop the project because of its proximity to the Maurice River and the potential impact on wildlife, Ayres said.

"As a result of the litigation, we have set aside 100 acres for bird habitat. The developers also added buffers and altered start times at different times of the year that could interfere with birds mating. Since this is next to an airport that has 70,000 to 100,000 take offs and landings a year, noise is not much of an issue," he said.

Earl Sherrick, executive director of the Greater Millville Chamber of Commerce, said race car enthusiasts tend to gather for back-to-back events over long weekends.

Big events could attract between 3,000 and 7,000 people with a high-maintenance, expensive hobby.
"This will be a country club for racers. It will also attract ancillary businesses like body shops, tire dealers and mechanics. We expect it to be a catalyst for an entire automotive industry," said Sherrick.