Tooele County Commissioners announced Tuesday that they have signed an initial agreement to sell Miller Motorsports Park to a Chinese industrialist for $20 million.
And the potential new owner of the facility intends to not only keep the racetrack open, but to also make Tooele County a center for trade and tourism with China.
Mitime Investment and Development Group, wholly owned by billionaire Li Shufu of Hangzhou, China, has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Tooele County to purchase Miller Motorsports Park for a one-time cash payment of $20 million.
The announcement received a loud round of applause from the standing-room-only crowd at the commission meeting Tuesday night.
But not all in attendance were in favor of the deal.
“It’s disgusting to me that that you are selling out land that belongs to America to a communist country,” said Denise Graham.
The county did receive one proposal that exceeded Mitime’s $20 million offer. But Mitime’s proposal for investment in the track and other associated facilities gave its offer an edge over the other proposal, according to Commissioner Shawn Milne.
“Mitime’s proposal includes economic factors well in excess of the upfront $20 million purchase price,” he said. “Given the additional elements that have been noted, county commissioners believe the company’s proposal is a boon to the local economy and will be for years to come.”
County assessors and independent assessors placed the market value of Miller Motorsports Park at $26 million to $28 million.
However, that figure includes personal property other than land and buildings that will be retained by the Larry H. Miller Group. Mitime will have to deal directly with the Miller Group for those assets, Milne said.
In a meeting Wednesday afternoon at the Comfort Inn & Suites in Lake Point, representatives of Mitime unveiled a new name and logo for the racetrack.
The facility will be known as the Utah Motorsports Campus, according to Xinggui Wang, president of Mitime.
“Racing is in its infant stage in China. There are very few tracks,” he said. “Miller has been in operation for 10 years, their employees have great experience.”
Mitime has one track under construction in China and has plans for at least four more tracks.
The purchase of the Miller track will help Mitime train employees for its operations in China. Mitime will also make the Utah Motorsports Campus the best track in the U.S., Wang said.
Alan Wilson, a North Salt Lake resident who has been working as a consultant on racetrack design and management for Mitime since 2012, outlined the plans for Utah Motorsports Campus.
Wilson has designed over 30 racetracks. He designed the track at Miller Motorsports Park and managed the facility for the first three years it was open.
Wilson will serve as vice-chairman of a five-member board that will oversee the Utah Motorsports Park for Mitime.
Two other Utah residents will be named to the board, Wang said. Wang will be board chairman.
Wilson will be responsible for the transition and operation of UMC.
Initially, Mitime will invest between $6 million and $8 million to upgrade the facility and bring it up to industry standards for automobile and motorcycle racing, according to Wilson.
Also, Mitime will retain many of the Miller employees now there.
“The Miller employees are very knowledgeable and good at what they do,” Wilson said. “Mitime has no plans to bring in workers from China to take their place.”
Existing tenants and vendors, including the Ford Performance Driving School, will be invited to stay, Wilson said.
Wilson anticipates that the 2016 race calendar will have most of the same events as the 2015 calendar.
“We want to keep the current programs and polish them, make them profitable and grow from there,” he said.
There are no plans to immediately return to large international events at the track, Wilson said.
Mitime will build a hotel-like dormitory to house 60 to 80 people at UMC.
The dormitory will be used to house what Wilson described as Chinese interns that Mitime will bring to the campus to observe the staff and learn how to run a track. The students will return to China to work at Mitime’s tracks.
“These aren’t employees, they won’t be coming to take jobs,” Wilson said. “Their experience here will be part of their education.”
In order to supply racing vehicles for the tracks in China, Mitime will either build or contract with tenants at the campus to build racecars and climbing trucks to be exported to China.
There are no training facilities for racecar drivers in China, so drivers from China will be brought to Tooele for training.
Mitime will build a three-eighths-mile oval track on the campus for training drivers.
Initially the oval will not have spectator facilities, but when Rocky Mountain Raceway shuts down, something Wilson expects will happen in four years, Mitime may build spectator facilities and a drag strip to bring the Rocky Mountain Racetrack crowd to Tooele County.
A new motocross course and stadium, and a rally cross course may be built by Mitime at UMC. These additional investments are estimated to exceed $40 million, according to Wilson.
Other possible investments at the track include additional garages and manufacturing facilities, he said.
Mitime plans to partner with local higher education institutions to provide education in automotive technology and management.
“We need to train a local workforce that we can hire,” Wilson said.
Mitime also wants to make Tooele County a base for Chinese tourists who want to see the United States, Wilson said.
Mitime and the county commissioners hope to have a final purchase agreement finalized by the end of October with Mitime taking possession of the land and buildings by Jan. 1, 2016.
Miller Motorsports Park opened in 2006 on 512 acres of property leased from Tooele County.
Originally the property was owned by the Grantsville Conservation District and leased to Tooele County for 99 years, which then leased the property to Larry H. Miller Group. Tooele County eventually obtained ownership of the property.
In May 2015 the Miller Group informed Tooele County that it would not renew its lease for the property. The Miller Group will walk away from the track at end of the current racing season in October, according to Miller officials.
The land, the track, the buildings, and all other facilities become the property of Tooele County when Miller terminates its lease, according to the lease agreement.
In June 2015, Milne reported that the county was reviewing 10 viable offers for the track.
Staff from the Economic Development Corporation of Utah, Tooele City’s economic development consultant Randy Sant, and unnamed CEO’s of international corporations in Utah, helped the county review the proposals, according to Milne.
During Tuesday night’s commission meeting, a public hearing was held to give citizens an opportunity to comment about the sale of Miller Motorsports Park.
Nearly 20 citizens spoke during the hearing, the majority of which expressed support for the racetrack’s sale to Mitime. But some questioned the integrity of the process and what will happen to the $20 million.
The commissioners said a decision has not been made about how the $20 million will be used. But they offered they’d like to see most of it placed into the county’s rainy day fund.
