The Irwindale Speedway in Southern California has had quite a tumultuous life, and according to reports from local news media outlets this week, it may soon be out out of its misery, once and for all — at a grave loss for the drag racing community.
Irwindale, a state-of-the-art multi-purpose racing venue located in Los Angeles County, opened in 1999 with a banked half-mile paved oval course and later an eighth-mile, NHRA-sanctioned drag strip. Like all tracks past and present in the Golden State, Irwindale has been met with its share of public opposition and buyout interests from parties that value the land for commercial purposes.
However, the facilities’ biggest battle came from its own undoing in 2012, when it filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. Following that process, the track fell back into the hands of land lessee Nu-Way Industries and re-opened for racing activities. The writing was seemingly on the wall in September of 2013, though, when the land was sold to Outlet Partners, LLC (for a reported $22 million). Outlet Partners extended and agreed to continue offering the lease to 211 Enterprises, operators of the facility, on a year-to-year basis.
But now, it seems, Outlet Partners is ready to move on their bold plan to bring a large shopping center to the property. According to the Pasadena Star-News, the City Council is expected to meet for a hearing to discuss an agreement with Outlet Partners to change the land’s zoning code to commercial, which will apve the way (literally) for the construction of an outdoor shopping center, an entertainment stage, central plaza, and dining courtyard that city officials expect will “generate thousands of jobs and bring a new heartbeat to the community.”
Community Development Director Gustavo Romo, in an interview with Star-News, said the existing lease with 211 Enterprises will continue until the land owners secure 65 percent of the outlet tenants. At that point, should the re-zoning request pass, the racing facility will be demolished and the 63-acre site will become just another shopping district that used to be a race track. It’s all too common a theme in California, and sadly, it appears that progress is going to win again.
If the plan comes to fruition, construction could reportedly begin as early as January of 2016, with a first phase involving demolition of the race track and development of more than half of the ful project, which would run through summer of 2017.