Chesterfield EDA, Competitive Racing ink lease-to-purchase deal for Southside Speedway

The Chesterfield EDA and Competitive Racing Investments recently signed a lease-to-own agreement for the shuttered Southside Speedway property. (BizSense file)

Negotiations for a deal touted as the vehicle to bring racing back to Southside Speedway have crossed the finish line.

The Chesterfield Economic Development Authority and Competitive Racing Investments LLC have signed a 20-year lease-to-purchase agreement to allow Competitive Racing to take over operation of the shuttered, county-owned racetrack on Genito Road.

Under the agreement, Competitive Racing would ultimately pay $5.9 million in rent over the lease period to eventually assume ownership of more than 40 acres that includes the track.

For years one through five, Competitive Racing is paying $1 in annual rent. Starting on year six until the end of the term, the group will pay $32,833 per month in rent ($394,000 annually), per the agreement.

The idea behind the approach to rental payments is to give the operator a few years of breathing room to figure out how to reopen the property as a competitive racing venue, which Economic Development Director Garrett Hart said is required of the lease arrangement.

“It’s a favorable lease. The Board (of Supervisors) has done all they can do to bring racing back but guarantee the taxpayers aren’t on the hook,” Hart said. “This is not an agreement to go and develop whatever on the property. This is an agreement to bring back racing to the property.”

The anticipated date the Southside Speedway would reopen and other details about the project were unavailable. Local businessman and racetrack booster Lin O’Neill, who is part of the Competitive Racing ownership group, declined to comment for this article.

Hart said the EDA would reclaim control of the property if Competitive Racing isn’t able to reopen the track in the first few years of the lease. While racing is a by-right use on the property already, Chesterfield is requiring Competitive Racing to apply for and secure a rezoning of the property to tee up a mixed-use development.

Per the lease agreement, the EDA can terminate the lease after five years if Competitive Racing hasn’t yet opened the racing venue and met other requirements. The deal stipulates that Chesterfield wouldn’t be responsible for financing the redevelopment or operation of the racetrack.

The Southside Speedway property (in yellow) was acquired by the EDA in 2021 after the track closed the previous year. Per the lease agreement with Competitive Racing, it will be expected to reopen the track in five years. (Courtesy Chesterfield County)

Competitive Racing is able to sell portions of the property with the EDA’s approval, and would pay the authority $125,000 per acre sold, which would be credited against rental payments. A master plan and rezoning will be required before any sales take place.

Under the lease agreement, Southside Speedway would be able to utilize parking spaces at the county-owned River City Sportsplex and other nearby current or future county properties for its races and events at the EDA’s discretion.

Hart said Competitive Racing has paid a $591,000 deposit in escrow for the lease, which was effective Feb. 3.

Chesterfield officials and the track operators plan to hold an event at the property on March 11 to formally announce the agreement.

The recently inked deal has been more than a year in the making. Chesterfield announced in December 2023 that it had selected Competitive Racing for the project, and negotiations over the deal played out over the following months. Competitive Racing’s pitch was one of two the county received during a formal request for proposals solicitation, which followed a grassroots movement led by O’Neill that sought to return racing to the property after it shuttered in 2020.

Jeff Oakley of Oakley Tank Lines, Joe Liesfeld of Liesfeld Contracting and Josh Lief, an attorney and former general manager of Virginia International Raceway, are named as part-owners of Competitive Racing in the lease agreement.

Chesterfield’s RFP stipulated that the county wanted a developer that would renovate or rebuild the property to operate an auto racing venue there, as well as incorporate additional entertainment activities like sporting events and concerts and restaurants, breweries or arcades to the site.

Among the minimum requirements sought by Chesterfield are a racetrack that could accommodate at least 5,500 people. The county’s RFP also required a financing plan to build the project that included at least 20 percent equity funding from the entity that filed the proposal.

A consultant hired by the county to study the property estimated in late 2022 that it would cost $10 million to $15 million to reopen the track.

The Chesterfield EDA bought the Southway Speedway property at 12800 Genito Road, which includes the racetrack as well as land on the other side of the street, for $5 million in summer 2021. The property is described as a 47-acre site in the lease agreement and a 41-acre site in online land records.

Known as “The Toughest Short Track in the South,” Southside Speedway opened in 1959 and hosted stock-car races for decades until it closed five years ago. Drivers such as Denny Hamlin, Bobby Allison and Cal Johnson raced there.

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