Local taxpayers may have to hold their breaths until New Year’s Eve, but 2018 may go down as the year when Tooele County sold the former Miller Motorsports Park, now branded as Utah Motorsports Campus, after a three and one-half year adventure trying to sell the facility.
The sale is expected to close on or before New Year’s Eve, but last week a threat to the process arose as Rep. Doug Sagers, R-Tooele City, suggested he may try to block the sale if he doesn’t receive the financial records for UMC that he has requested through the Government Records Access and Management Act.
In the past, the Tooele County Commission has held that under state law those records have been classified as protected until the sale is closed.
County Commissioner Shawn Milne said he is “reserved and has some cautious optimism” that the sale of UMC will be “resolved sooner than later, for the county, our citizens, and all stakeholders involved.”
Tooele County announced in September 2018 that it would sell UMC to Mitime Utah, LLC for $18.55 million.
“We are pleased to announce this agreement with Mitime who has been a valued partner and the track operator for the past three years,” said County Commission Chairman Wade Bitner, in a press release that announced the Mitime as the buyer. “They are committed to growing the facility and its economic impact with more events, races, a hotel, manufacturing facility and research and development center. They have been tremendous stewards of this world-class track on behalf of the county and we are glad to have the ownership now in their very capable hands.”
The purchase by Mitime includes the track, buildings, all physical assets as well as all 511 acres of property. Tenant leases and current event contracts will be honored under the agreement but may be subject to changes in 2019.
Mitime Utah is the parent company of Utah Motorsports Campus, LLC, which in turn is a subsidiary of the Zhejiang Geely Holding Company, a publicly traded company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange based in China’s Zhejiang Province.
Geely’s holdings include the largest private automobile manufacturer in China, as well as Volvo, Proton, Lotus, the London Taxi Company, and Terrafugia.
Mitime submitted the only bid in response to the county’s April 2018 published request for offers to purchase UMC.
According to the request for offers the deadline for offers was July 2, 2018, at 5 p.m. Tooele County was to announce the offer it had accepted, if one was accepted, within 30 days after the deadline. Closing was to follow in another 30 days, with the cash purchase price due in full.
On July 3, Milne acknowledged that the county had received at least one qualified offer for the purchase of UMC.
However, it wasn’t until the September announcement that the county officially revealed that Mitime was the one and only qualified bidder.
The sales agreement was approved in a County Commission meeting at the end of October. While the sales price for UMC was $18.55 million, the county’s management agreement with Mitime for the last three years of operating the track for the county called for the county to reimburse Mitime for start up costs, operating losses, expenses for operating costs and pay Mitime a management fee of 1 percent of cash receipts upon the sale of UMC.
The County Commission approved a 2019 budget in December 2018 with a $10.35 million cost for legal expenses and closing costs associated with the sale of UMC.
Details of the $10.35 million amount were not provided, but the County Commission confirmed that the cost includes closing costs and the county’s payment of the items agreed upon in the management agreement.
The county’s independent audit for 2017 included a summary of the county’s financial obligation to UMC for 2016 and 2017, including an entry to adjust the 2016 financial statements to reflect the obligations of the management agreement.
With a sales price of $18.55 million and $10.35 million in expenses and closing costs for the UMC sale, the county is looking at $8.2 million in net gain from the sale in 2019. That does not include the $1.55 million the county paid in 2017 to Center Point Management to drop all legal challenges to the sale of UMC.
The Miller Motorsports Park opened in June 2006 on 511 acres of land leased to the Miller Group by Tooele County. As part of the lease agreement, the Miller Group paid the county 5 percent of the track’s revenue. In 2013 MMP’s annual lease payment to the county was $337,166.
The quest to find a new owner for MMP started in May 2015 when the Miller Group informed the county that it would not renew the 10-year lease on the facility when it expired at the end of the year.
The track, the buildings, and all other facilities became the property of Tooele County upon the termination of the lease, according to the agreement with the Miller Group.
The county signed an agreement in October 2015 to sell the facility for $20 million to Mitime Utah Investment, leaving on the table a $22.1 million offer from Center Point Management, a Las Vegas-based development company.
Center Point filed a motion in 3rd District Court to set aside the sale to Mitime, because Center Point had offered a higher purchase price.
Third District Court Judge Robert Adkins set aside the sale to Mitime in December 2015. During the hearing before Adkins, Center Point Management raised its offer to $28.5 million.
While Center Point’s challenge to the sale of Miller Motorsports Park proceeded through the courts, the county entered into the agreement with UMC, LLC to keep the facility open under county ownership in 2016.
The county renewed the management agreement with UMC, LLC, one year at a time, for 2017 and 2018.
Adkins’s ruling did not require the county to sell the former MMP to Center Point. After Adkins set aside the original sale to Mitime, the county sold UMC to the county’s redevelopment agency for $20 million in December 2016.
Center Point again filed a complaint in 3rd District Court, asking this time that the sale of UMC to the RDA be set aside and the county be directed to sell UMC to Center Point.
In response to pre-trial motions, 3rd District Court Judge Randall Skanchy set aside the sale of UMC to the county’s RDA.
The court was considering Center Point’s request that the court direct the county to sell the facility to Center Point when the county and Center Point reached a settlement agreement.
Center Point agreed that for a $1.55 million settlement paid by the county it would drop all challenges to the sale of UMC and not participate in future attempts to sell UMC.
Skanchy approved the settlement in December 2017.
The settlement with Center Point opened the door for the county to issue a new call for offers to purchase UMC, which it did in April 2018.