Forest City named master development consultant for Alabama Motorsports Park

Mobile, Ala. Forest City Asset Services, a subsidiary of Forest City Enterprises, based in Cleveland, was named master development consultant for the Alabama Motorsports Park, a 2,800-acre, mixed-use, master-planned development in Mobile County, Ala.

The announcement was made Friday by project developer Gulf Coast Entertainment.

The project is planned to feature motorsports facilities, entertainment venues, restaurants, hotels, destination retail, plus a recreational vehicle park, office, industrial and residential components. A 7/10-mile oval speedway, which could eventually boast 70,000 seats, a three-mile road course and a karting track are slated to be the entertainment centerpieces of the development.

Along with the Forest City announcement, GCE also announced that it had retained one of the nation's leading public finance consulting firms, MuniCap of Columbia, Md., to assist GCE and Forest City in all matters related to tax increment financing (TIF).  

A $500 million TIF agreement with GCE was approved on August 6, 2009 by the Prichard City Council. The City of Prichard is one of two municipalities in which the project resides.

GCE and Forest City are hopeful that construction will begin in 2010 in order to deliver motorsports activities as early as 2012.

GCE, Forest City and MuniCap conducted their first joint planning session in Mobile on Jan. 13.