$30 million motorsports complex eyed for Lee airport property

A New York auto dealer is in preliminary talks with Lee County to build two automobile racetracks on land at the Southwest Florida International Airport.

Carmine Dell Aquila, of Estero, who owns a Nissan dealership on Long Island, New York, is looking for a 400- to 500-acre site for a car racetrack with a separate track for off-road vehicles.

The lure of the proposal from Dell Aquila's Amcar LLC could ultimately lie in companion facilities if they are used to train the next generation of automotive technicians for increasingly high-tech automobiles.

Details about the proposal were obtained by The News-Press in a public documents request to the Lee Port Authority and Lee County government. Both are under the direct authority of the Board of County Commissioners.

Port authority staffers, including airport Executive Director Jeff Muldar, have met with Dell Aquila and his local attorney Sawyer Smith, of Fort Myers, as well as County Commissioner Cecil Pendergrass. 

More:No room for your Lamborghini or Porsche? There's a condo for that

More:Speed racer: Rare Porsche travels on Naples streets for dealer opening

The session also included Thomas Burt, a senior vice president with UBS Institutional Consulting, a unit of UBS Group, the $65 billion Zurich financial institution. 

Early estimates peg the cost of the facility at $30 million, with $15 million to build each racetrack. The track promoter would also construct a building for administration and automotive technical education.

Dell Aquila has been a developer in New Jersey and served as an elected village supervisor in Port Jefferson, New York.

Talks are preliminary and began informally more than a year ago.

Vicki Moreland, communications director for the port authority, said federal law sets strict standards for use of airport land. Property may be leased, but not sold, and the price has to reflect the fair market value of the land.

"There is interest on the part of the developer, but we have not progressed to a point where a site has been selected,"  Moreland said. "None of the formalization that would take this from discussion to the next step have been taken."

Last March, Gene Meyers, a port authority administration director, said in a memorandum that Muldar likes proposals from Lee County Sports Authority. The sports authority's mission includes improving the county's sports-oriented tourism program.

A soccer stadium and a complex for basketball, volleyball and other sports facilities are being discussed, port authority documents reveal.

"Jeff is conceptually OK with us pursuing this (sports complex) venue, as well as the soccer venue. We are still possibly OK with the racetrack, though that one is less desirable," Meyers said in a memorandum obtained by The News-Press. 

No site has been selected, but airport documents note that different scenarios have been discussed for the two tracks. One would see them grouped together on airport property.  

Another would see one track built for a paved course on the north side of the airport, between Chamberlin and Daniels parkways, where airport officials target research and development space and high quality office buildings.

Land to the south of the airport is targeted for the off-road course.

More:Halted by technicality, North Fort Myers plaza may resume car shows

More:Bye bye birdies: 6 great restaurants near RSW airport Fort Myers

At a Sept. 13 meeting with Amcar, port authority officials said a parcel to the south is larger and would not involve potential noise and compatibility issues. Amcar has promised restrictions on sound volumes and would offer electric car racing, a new motorsports trend, on weekdays.

Nothing can be built without Federal Aviation Administration approval. 

The port authority has been considering development options for its Skyplex land, which includes the former airport terminal site.

In a memo to Fort Myers attorney Mark Ebelini, who represented the track proponents in the early stages of the plan, Edward Moran, director of properties for the airport, outlines a  vision for the property that includes class A office space, seen by some as being at a premium in the county.

An educational facility Dell Aquina proposes for a 3- to 4-acre site, could add value as part of a wider effort to improve education for automotive technicians. 

Increasingly sophisticated engines and pollution control equipment on modern vehicles requires a more advanced, high-tech oriented education than in the "grease monkey" days of yore.

"If you don't have the theory, you can't fix the car," said Randy Houck, director of business and education initiatives for the Florida Auto Dealers Association. "You can take things off, put things back and remember where they go — but you're not going to be able to understand how to fix the car."

More RSW news:RSW adds cash-to-card machines as airlines say no to paper money

More RSW news:Hallo! Eurowings connects Germany to Southwest Florida

Houck said the industry could put 1,500 well-trained technicians to work immediately with the right skills.

In a memo summarizing issues with the proposal, Meyers said the "training center component would be gifted to the community to help train skilled technicians in this area."

Dealers association President Ted Smith is pushing to make state dollars available for such a program.

"We are trying to get some state resources dedicated to opening new schools across the state," Smith said. "I will be engaging whoever our next governor might be; this is a big enough problem."

Automobile racing has been a part of Southern culture since the early days of motorized travel, and Southwest Florida has seen the interest in automotive speed in the past.

It has been 30 years since a racetrack was first proposed and ultimately built on land leased from the Charlotte County Airport in Punta Gorda.

Known variously as Charlotte County Speedway, Three Palms Speedway and Punta Gorda Speedway, the facility still runs an ambitious schedule of races.

More:Amateur baseball players converge at Roy Hobbs World Series

More:Gartner to build new campus, double workforce

Two years ago Joe and Janet Gentry took over the facility, renamed it the 4-17 Southern Speedway and have operated a September through June schedule. 

In Collier County a 6-mile test track built by Ford Motor Co. in the 1980s was used for performance testing of car designs from 1995 until 2002.

It was later sold to Harley-Davidson Motor Company and was acquired by the Chrysler Group five years ago and operates as the company's Florida Evaluation Center.

Approval of a motorsports complex would face hurdles beyond the port authority. 

Lee County spokeswoman Betsy Clayton said the county has no application, so no review has been initiated.

"Any impacts resulting from a proposed project would have to be addressed in the zoning and development order application review," she said.