Tws to open till end of the year

[AI#97]

If you paid attention to the numbers being thrown around this entire time, the developer originally told the city council they were going to put $90 Million into the property with about 1400 lots available. That makes each lot COST $64k to be ready for sale...WITHOUT profit.

Latest number thrown out in the Houston paper they said $55 Million. That gets you in the $39k per lot...before profit. Typical developments in the area are selling lots for $30-35k after profit. The number of lots has gone down as well from all the scuttlebutt here in town.

If they are going to be competitive with the lots being sold closer to town, they will have to get their per lot COST down to around $20-25k...and get at least 1250 lots sold. That's $25M all in and you have to keep in mind they already have about $7M skin in the game, leaving them $18M to get ALL of the work done before they can sell LOT #1 if they are going to do a MUD.

If they can't get those numbers down to this, there is no reason whatsoever to put money into the deal. If you could get them to agree that they MIGHT make $5k per lot, for about 1250 lots, that gives them a profit $6.25M.....and it's a risky bet to sell the entire property within 5 years...or even 15 years. If you walked in the door and offered $8M cash tomorrow, you would likely own a racetrack. They get their original investment out of the deal and walk away with a couple Million dollars for sitting on the property for 18months. If you put the purchase package together similar to what bluebonnet is doing for the $10M all in price, you end up with a race track with 45 weekends booked and cash to spiff the place up a bit...maybe even all new paving and restroom upgrades. Spend the next 10 years entrenching the track into the fabric of the local economy and it will not go anywhere....EVER.

[mach1]

I get the feeling that, given their lofty aspirations, this won't be the last time they encounter a "complication" with the project.

Hopefully after all of the complications are worked out, the new will be worn off of COTA and we can race there for a reasonable amount of money.

[ShadowBolt]

What we should do is everyone stay away. Wonder what would happen to the owner if he had a track with no dates filled for the next six months? But that will not happen.

JJ

[Fbody383]

wicked front straight and sideways holy shit braking into T1 no matter which way you go. . . plus it's a 2+ mile roval with near airborne status and potholes and shit.

Real airborne status has been achieved.

Matt, what's it cost to do the removal of the concrete stands and make hillside seating/amphitheatre?

[RichardP]

But... But I have T-shirts that say I was at the last event. What am I supposed to do with those?

I'm not surprised that the development is running into problems. I was worried that they wouldn't figure it out before they started demolition and messed up the facility. Then we would have an unusable ghost track taunting us for a decade or more...


Richard P.

[Supercharged111]

Real airborne status has been achieved.

I'm not so sure I want to pay that fee, k member and a arm every time?

[BryanL]

Lienart is famous too.

http://blackflag.jalopnik.com/demoli...ium=socialflow

I saw it on Twitter.

Spell my name right now that I'm famous-Leinart. Of course I'm famous-I won the last CMC race ever at TWS! Well-maybe that won't be the case anymore but I still did a 360 on a cooler lid in the parking lot. They should have put that on the top of the page. I did like the first two comments to the story at the bottom, too.

Matt-you have been saying the same things for awhile and numbers don't lie-good stuff-but the government doesn't care about making a profit so they could still fund the deal. They also use different accounting than corporations. I'm cuirous-how much does it cost to rent the track for a weekend? I'm curious how much revenue the track brings in throughout the year.

[AI#97]

Real airborne status has been achieved.

Matt, what's it cost to do the removal of the concrete stands and make hillside seating/amphitheatre?

I have heard rumors of $1M to $3M to remove the concrete stands and the entire hill which probably included the track surface as well. Also heard rumors for years that it would take $10M to clean the site of the track which sounds high to me and again, those are rumors that have been around for years. However, take that $10M off the $18M I mentioned earlier and that leaves you $8M to put down all roads, electrical distribution ($$$ Copper prices are high as hell and you have to convince College Station Utilities to put the copper in...good luck!) sewers, water lines and meters (1250 of them), build the park you promised CS, all dirt work keeping in mind the entire outer loop is solid rock. Then figure in development costs for design, management and profit and you start to see how the deal makes no sense but hey, it isn't my money so what do I know? I suppose you could sell the MUD bonds to help pay for it all over the years but that is a SERIOUS gamble when there was less than 200 building permit applications in all of Bryan/CS for homes last year....and most of those were probably for the myriad of apartments....again a rumor I plan to investigate.

The way I look at it is if the "hiccup" was no big deal, they would have mentioned what it was and moved on. If it's a deal breaker, you keep your mouth shut to keep the money men involved and opposing interests from sabotaging the deal. If it's a small issue, you say what it is and play it off and maybe someone hears the story and offers to help. It's a poker game. To be a good player, you have to know how to spot a bluff.

Biggest issue you have to look at is that it is a HUGE development project. It would be HUGE for even a place like Houston. Getting all the "planets to align" with the City, State, environmental and other parts to fall into place is a MASSIVE undertaking. Time will tell. The part I found encouraging was the statement that if the issue isn't resolved quickly, it is likely the track will operate for a longer period of time. That is good news for us.

Anyway, it's all speculation and none of us have the money to change the course of events or are part of the deal to know all the details. All we can do is enjoy the track while it is still open and maybe convince the Owners that the current and future best use of the property is as a racetrack.

[AI#97]

Spell my name right now that I'm famous-Leinart. Of course I'm famous-I won the last CMC race ever at TWS! Well-maybe that won't be the case anymore but I still did a 360 on a cooler lid in the parking lot. They should have put that on the top of the page. I did like the first two comments to the story at the bottom, too.

Matt-you have been saying the same things for awhile and numbers don't lie-good stuff-but the government doesn't care about making a profit so they could still fund the deal. They also use different accounting than corporations. I'm cuirous-how much does it cost to rent the track for a weekend? I'm curious how much revenue the track brings in throughout the year.

track rental ranges from roughly $15k to $18k for a weekend depending on what you need for EMS and Cornerworkers. Pretty standard for all Texas tracks with the exception of Harris Hill which is a little cheaper. Hallett is down right CHEAP compared to TX tracks. COTA is $50k per day last I heard but hopefully that changes over the years.

I think, and I could be wrong but the track was rented at least 45 or 46 weekends a year for the last couple of years. You got the math you need from there.

[blk96gt]

Looks like NASA is penciled in for Oct. 17-18.
http://www.texasworldspeedway.com/th...-schedule.html