San Antonio Speedway now fully annexed by City of San Antonio

[debwill]

San Antonio Speedway is definitely in danger of being gone forever, unless someone saves it soon!

 

A couple of months ago, Donnie Montgomery had posted several pictures of the speedway's state of deterioration on Facebook. To make matters worse, I got the following news from Brian Bohlen yesterday. "The city of San Antonio has fully annexed the property now. The property has been zoned for a business park, and that doesn't allow for auto racing. The zoning can be changed, but it's going to take time and money. So, nothing can go on commercially there, and the property owners have decided to wait and see if they can sell it as is. The Rusty Wallace Racing Experience has already cancelled their future events because of the permit issue."

 

I guess we all knew this change was in the works, but it doesn't make it an easier to accept that SAS may very well be gone forever! So sad.

[nowrench]

Sad to see. was hoping someone would have came along and reopened it back up its a sad

[top_shelf_12]

Very unfortunate, guess it was just too far gone. Thank you again Chris, Brian and everyone else that worked to give her one more go.

[Bell90a]

Sad News To Hear Indeed ....

[NickHolt]

Frankly, it just makes the property harder to unload since there are so many more requirements (hoops) to build within the city limits than in either a ETJ or under Bexar County jurisdiction.

 

The city will demand that soil remediation take place if anything other than the existing (grandfathered) property usage is planned. And banks will require soils tests which the property will promptly fail. Soil remediation is a bit on the expensive side..

 

The whole property is an abandoned oil field with all the infrastructure simply left to rot into the soil. Soil from another soil remediation (heavy metals) site (Alamo Steel) was dumped on the property when Scott Holland had the track. The gas tank has plumes that have reached the river a mile or so away. Not to mention all the high grade oil from blown engines, the fact that the mud drag was used as a dump for many years, the fact that the septic system failed shortly after it was installed back in the late 1970s and the turn one-two infield was basically a sewer rather than a leach field.

 

So... we'll see where this all goes, but I suspect that property will sit until someone is willing to invest tons of money either as a race track or as some sort of development with a guaranteed return on investment in spite of the soil remediation expenses.

 

Nick

[top_shelf_12]

So a place for weeds to grow, asphalt to deteriorate, and those of us that know it, cry when we drive by. I actually can't bring myself to go by it while it's shut down, too depressing.

[JamesHigdon]

As Nick alluded to (and as has been my feeling for a while) this could actually be BETTER for the racetrack's long-term survival, the track being annexed means the property will have to undergo many millions (if not tens of millions) of dollars in remediation to be anything but a racetrack. The value of that property just plummeted as to be anything but a race-track it will literally be more expensive than it's worth to be developed. The property around the track is not being developed either and as such that property has no large inherent value as it sits so there is zero reason for anyone to turn a shovel on that piece of property.

 

The track will need to be brought up to code to be raced at but to my understanding once a property switches from ETJ to being annexed it is actually easier to get things "grandfathered" in for a property that was in the county previously. This COULD mean refitting the facility and building up infrastructure makes more sense, not less.