NJ Motorsports in June 16th Phila Inquirer

City hoping to rev up economy

Finishing touches are being made to the first of two raceways to open in Millville, N.J.

By Karen Langley

Inquirer Staff Writer

MILLVILLE, N.J. - The acrid fumes from the roadway below, where workers are putting down a final layer of asphalt, don't seem to bother the two men on the bridge.

They are inhaling the sweet smell of success.

On July 5, one of two raceways will open at New Jersey Motorsports Park, about five years after Don Fauerbach, Millville Mayor James Quinn, and others first talked about using 700 city-owned acres for a resort to draw big-spending motor enthusiasts to one of the state's poorest regions.

When both tracks open, the $50 million facility will have races and offer car buffs the chance to pay a $10,000 start-up fee - and $2,400 annual dues - to rev their Corvettes, Ferraris and Porsches past the park's black-and-white checkered time towers.

Eventually, the project will include hotels, restaurants and a conference center, said Fauerbach, the park's general manager. Officials estimate the park will draw as many as 400,000 visitors annually to this town of 27,000 residents.

"This is the Disneyland of Millville," Quinn said.

A city hit hard by the loss of manufacturing jobs during the last decade, Millville sought ways to boost its economy, such as the developing its downtown as an arts district.

Still searching for new jobs and tax flow, the city government began courting investors in motor-sports parks.

Though the park's opening-day staff will include only 100 full-time employees, research by the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Rowan University projected the park would create 6,250 jobs in the region by 2010.

The city's economic development director, Don Ayres, said the arrival of so much taxable property was keenly awaited.

"I don't think we've ever had a project that created that much investment in Cumberland County," he said.

Motor-park investors were attracted to Millville by its access to major East Coast cities, a regional fervor for racing sports, and other open-air attractions nearby.

"We are nestled literally in the crotch of an outdoorsman's paradise," Fauerbach said, mentioning the close proximity of the Maurice River and the Delaware River.

That proximity is exactly what worries some environmentalists.

A lawsuit filed by three environmental groups was settled in 2005 when the city designated 100 acres by the park as grasslands habitat. But concerns didn't die with the lawsuit.

At the American Littoral Society, an environmental group concerned with coastal areas, Delaware Bay program manager Matt Blake said he did not oppose the development, but worried that it would bring sprawl and sudden population growth.

"The Cumberland Forest represents ground zero for much of New Jersey's threatened and endangered species," Blake said. "It's not just about the racetrack . . . What came with it was the decision to open up one of the county's most important rural and forested areas to commercial development."

Asked about environmentalists' worries, Fauerbach cited the deep local ties that motor park advocates like himself and Quinn bring to the project. As an eighth-generation - his granddaughter makes 10 - resident of the area, Fauerbach said, he has a vested interest in local preservation.

Quinn and Fauerbach insist the city and motor park have approached development in an environmentally responsible manner. One of the raceways is built on land where sludge waste was dumped, and the city has committed to preserving half its square mileage as open space, Quinn said.

The park's $10,000 membership fee - which rises to $15,000 on July 1 - entitles holders to drive on the 1.9-mile Lightning Raceway and 2.25-mile Thunderbolt Raceway 30 days each year, with additional driving time at the Virginia International Raceway.

More than 100 members have joined from along the East Coast, but membership may be out of range for many local residents. The average Cumberland County household income was estimated at $44,398 by the Census Bureau in 2005.

Fauerbach insisted the course is not just for the ultra-rich.

"If you're a member of the Sports Car Club of America and have a $5,000 old MG sports car you've been fixing up in your garage," he said, "as an SCAA member you can come out and participate" for a small fee.

Quinn may be an outspoken proponent of the park, but he said he won't take out a membership - not even to race his new Jaguar convertible.

Racing enthusiasts can also take out a $200 annual spectator pass, Fauerbach said, allowing them to watch any of the races - such as Labor Day weekend's Grand-Am Rolex series.

Like the local Millville sports teams, Thunderbolt is named after the P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft used to train World War II pilots at Millville Airport, Fauerbach said. Other park features, like the trackside Villas at Breighton, evoke images of the airport's World War II ties.

"There's a tremendous amount of history here, and we're proud of that," Fauerbach said. "We're committed to not only preserving what's here but to tell that story."

In the downtown arts district of Millville, numerous business owners expressed faith in the park's promised economic jolt.

Clad in a paint-stained, pastel button-down shirt and an orange hat adorned with Chiquita banana stickers, artist and gallery owner James F. Penland put aside his brush to gush about the boost he said would surely accompany the park's opening.

"The motor-sports park is going to be a bonanza to this town," he said.

Asked whether motor-sports fans would patronize the arts, Penland said, "I know that to be a fact. You're talking about a class of people who can afford to travel, obviously. The women are always shoppers."

Penland's hopes about the spending potential of female visitors - called "racing widows" by one store owner - were echoed at other shops.

Not everyone in town is so sure. Aggie McVeigh, owner of the art gallery and flea market Refrigerator Door, waited outside her shop on a recent day for someone to buy $1 items such as a wooden washboard and a pair of white canvas roller skates.

McVeigh moved to Millville for the affordable taxes and living costs, but she said she was struggling to keep her business afloat in a town where "none of us can afford to buy anything."

Though the racetrack will draw crowds, McVeigh said she thought much of the traffic would bypass downtown Millville.

"I'm not holding my breath for a lot to happen," she said. "But I would be happy, of course, just like anyone else."

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Contact staff writer Karen Langley at 856-779-3876 or klangley@phillynews.co