Mooresville business officials say they hope the Chip Ganassi Racing building, which sits in a prominent location among Race City USA’s NASCAR shops, won’t be vacant long. “It will be loss, but we’re hopeful that another company will buy their existing building,” said Melanie O’Connell Underwood, economic developer for the Mooresville-South Iredell Chamber of Commerce. “Although it’s not a given, the building is made for racing.” Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates confirmed last week that it has accepted roughly $370,000 in incentives from Cabarrus County and Concord to move to a new and larger facility closer to Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Ganassi Racing, which supports NASCAR Winston Cup drivers #40-Sterling Marlin, #42-Jamie McMurray and #41-Casey Mears, employs about 150 people in Mooresville at a high-profile location just inside the main entrance to Lakeside Park. The business park is home to several dozen racing teams. The larger Concord facility, which is already der construction, will have up to 350 employees. The team had also been looking for places to relocate to in Mooresville, having outgrown its Lakeside Park site. In April, Ganassi struck a tentative deal to move into the vacant Matsushita Compressor Corp. plant in Mooresville, but those plans fell through despite incentive offers from Iredell County and Mooresville. Underwood showed the team the high-tech Matsushita building, which manufactured electronics. But Concord’s incentive a 65% property tax return over four years- with an airport and speedway were factors in the decision to move. “They’re going to be looking for a hangar at the Concord Airport,” Underwood said. Right now the airport, a popular location for NASCAR team jets, is in the process of lengthening a runway to accommodate longer flights. “The airport, I think that’s a huge driver in this project,” said John Cox, CEO of the Cabarrus Regional Chamber of Commerce. Ganassi racing has occupied its Lakeside Park location since 1994. In 2000, Chip Ganassi bought majority ownership of the team. Previously known as Team SABCO, the organization was initially a NASCAR research and development team that Felix Sabates bought from Rick Hendrick in 1987.( Mooresville Tribune )(12-1-2003)
