Proposed Richmond NASCAR Hall of Fame Site Sold for $5.69 Million

Noted in passing:

As the Charlotte, NC location of the NASCAR Hall of Fame struggles to attract visitors, the Richmond, Virginia paper reports today that a portion of the site Richmond proposed to NASCAR for the HOF a decade ago has sold for $5.69 Million. Unlike the Charlotte site, the Richmond site has hundreds of thousands of vehicles passing by each day on I-95 and I-295. Oh, well.

Posted: Wednesday, March 11, 2015 10:30 pm

By CAROL HAZARD Richmond Times-Dispatch

Scott Farm, a 99-acre property at one of the busiest and most high-profile interchanges in Virginia, was purchased this month by Riverstone Properties, a Richmond development company, for $5.69 million.

Scott Farm, at 500 Scott Road, is located in the southeast quadrant of Interstates 95 and 295. It has been owned by the Scott family for generations.

The adjoining Cobb Farm was sold to Dominion Virginia Power, which is building an $80 million operations center on the property. The 110,000-square-foot facility will replace a nearly 30-year-old facility in the Innsbrook Corporate Center.

The new buyer did not disclose plans for the Scott Farm site, said Joe Buhrman with Commonwealth Commercial Partners LLC, who along with Bill Barnett represented the seller.

Representatives with Riverstone Properties, a privately held company with several real estate holdings, could not be reached Wednesday for comment.

Gary McLaren, executive director for the Henrico Economic Development Authority, said Scott Farm has been a high-potential development area for a long time.

Its an important commercial corridor for us, McLaren said, adding that he was not surprised that someone finally picked it up.

He said the land has been permitted for a number of uses. Its a large parcel at the intersection of two interstates a well-located piece of property.

Buhrman said the property has been on the market for more than 10 years and has been under contract over the years to several local developers who considered it for several purposes.

The site was part of a larger tract of land that had been a finalist a decade ago for the NASCAR Hall of Fame museum, which ended up in Charlotte, N.C.

chazard@timesdispatch.com

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 01/29/17 05:56:57AM

Obviously hindsight is 20/20 in a lot of ways with the NHOF. But even with passage of time, the ridiculously rosy projections the cities pitched and so on, it's hard for me to see that Richmond would have been chosen on a re-vote.

I enjoy the city, and I'm sure many from that area and in the area would have wanted it. But I've found it really tough - and expensive - to fly there from Tennessee. Not sure options have ever been that much better to/from other major cities. The city would have had to count on drive-through patrons for it which really would have limited the number of folks through the turnstiles.

Yet it is interesting to track what has happened to the variousrunner-up sites in the years since the decision was made to build in Charlotte.

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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.

Definitely not a rosy "fly to" locale. The pitch was the huge north/south volume of traffic passing by on adjacent I-95 from Maine to Florida.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

AFTER NASCAR PICKED CHARLOTTE, NC. FOR IT'S NASCAR HALL OF FAME.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE VIRGINIA'S HIGH DOLLAR MONEY POCKETS BUSINESS MEN AND CITY/COUNTY/STATE POLIITICANS WHEN JOE KELLY AND I SUGGESTED AN "VIRGINIA RACING HALL OF FAME" AT THIS LOCATION? Scott Farm, a 99-acre property at one of the busiest and most high-profile interchanges in Virginia, was purchased this month by Riverstone Properties, a Richmond development company, for $5.69 million.

Scott Farm, at 500 Scott Road, is located in the southeast quadrant of Interstates 95 and 295. It has been owned by the Scott family for generations.

"VIRGINIA RACING HALL OF FAME" WAS TO HONORED MECHANICS,OWNERS,DRIVERS,RACERS,OFFICIALS OF STATE OF VIRGINA'S AIRPLANE RACING,BOAT RACING,CAR RACING AND MOTORCYCLE RACING.

VIRGINIA'S NASCAR HALL OF FAME GROUP TOOK OFF AND DISAPPEARED!!
THEY NOT INTERESTED IN "OLD VIRGINIA RACING HISTORY"!!

LOOK AT RICHMOND INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY, NO RACE TRACK MUSEUM!!

Thanks for any information or photos posted.
Dennis Garrett
Richmond,Va.USA

Dennis, Fred Agostino and other Henrico County officials were counting the $$$ when they supported the NASCAR HOF. I don't know a single individual in that group that knew anything about weekly racing or the history of racing in Virginia.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"