State readies for run at NASCAR track

SEATTLE – NASCAR track developers have not yet chosen a Northwest site, but state lawmakers already are considering what it would take to beat out Oregon for a slot on the popular stock-car circuit.

The new governor and state lawmakers – warier these days of big public backing for private projects – will decide just how badly Washington wants the track, expected to cost about $140 million and seat 75,000 people.

Florida-based track developer International Speedway Corp. has hired a prestigious Seattle law firm, Preston Gates & Ellis, to advise it on state business law, The Seattle Times reported Sunday.

International Speedway also has signed up Gogerty Stark Marriott – the Seattle firm whose principal, Bob Gogerty, managed Paul Allen’s 1997 campaign to build Seahawks Stadium – to deal with the political side.

The developer also has hired lobbyist Mark Greenberg, who represents National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing sponsor Anheuser-Busch.

Greenberg and International Speedway representatives have visited two gubernatorial candidates – Democrat Ron Sims and Republican Dino Rossi – and are working to line up a talk with front-runner Democrat Christine Gregoire, now Washington’s attorney general, The Times reported.

Some lawmakers are wary of another big-budget economic development project after approving a $3.2 billion package to land Boeing 7E7 jet assembly at the company’s Everett plant.

“There seems to be a feeling that ISC is going to do basically what Boeing has done, so there’s potentially going to be a competition,” said state Rep. Brian Sullivan, D-Mukilteo.

“Can you blame them for going to Oregon and Washington at the same time and saying, ‘Who’s going to cut us the best deal?’ “

Here’s what the state has offered for various projects:

• The $3.2 billion, 20-year tax break for the aerospace industry that went into effect only if the 7E7 were built here.

• A $300 million funding package for the Seahawks Stadium project approved by voters in 1997.

• A $372 million public package for Safeco Field.

Rep. Bob Sump, R-Republic, who calls himself a “NASCAR nut,” said he’ll favor a track only if the deal makes sense for taxpayers.

“I’m philosophically opposed to government getting involved to the extent it did for the Seahawks Stadium, of financially subsidizing the project,” Sump said.

“I think another tax break for a sports facility is going to be a hard sell,” said opponent Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, a ranking minority member of the Senate Highways and Transportation Committee who could help block track-related transportation improvements.

Three counties are pitching locations for a NASCAR track.

Snohomish County made a public proposal in April, offering a site near Marysville, close to Interstate 5.

Kitsap County sent a proposal in September for a site on the Mason-Kitsap county line, south of Bremerton National Airport. It’s part of 2,500 acres designated for industrial development and near a community drag-racing strip.

In Thurston County, the two most viable sites are in Yelm, where the city owns 1,400 acres of farmland and other property annexed in 1993; and Lacey, at a 300-acre site in the Hawks Prairie area west of I-5.

Individual property owners may offer other options along the I-5 corridor and near Grand Mound and Tenino.

None of the sites has a completed proposal, said Michael Cade, executive director of the Thurston County Economic Development Council.

Oregon is running a little behind Washington, with possibilities in Columbia County and the site of a former aluminum plant in suburban Portland. The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde is also considering investment in NASCAR.