Des Moines Register
By ROB GRAY • robgray@dmreg.com • June 13, 2009
Newton, Ia. — Dave Fisher merely wanted to do his part.
The year was 2006 and Maytag had just left Newton, taking more than 1,500 good-paying manufacturing jobs and much of the city's identity with it.
But a new attraction, Iowa Speedway, was forming on the horizon, off Interstate 80 exit 168. Fisher decided to build nearby.
Three years later, the track has become a prime regional draw for the city of 15,000 — and the biggest race of the season to date, the Iowa Corn Indy 250, swings into view next Sunday. More than 40,000 fans are expected for the race, said Iowa Speedway president Jerry Jauron, which would constitute a record crowd at the facility.
And Fisher's family-owned convenience store, Prairie Gas, will be there to greet, feed and fuel them.
"I wanted to do something for my community," said Fisher, who has 12 employees at the store and expects to employ 8-12 people at an adjacent hotel, Prairie Suites, he's established with Alan Halferty that is currently under construction. "I'm a fourth-generation Newton boy myself, so with the loss of Maytag, it's very important people like me step outside the box and kind of jump off the deep end and start ventures like this."
Fisher's not alone. Newton city officials describe a community that has bound together to find ways to help ease the effects of Maytag's departure, both psychologically and financially.
"If you're the particular family that was impacted or you lost your job, the impact was huge," city attorney and acting city administrator Darrin T. Hamilton said of the loss of Maytag/Whirlpool. "From the overall city budget perspective, we're at a point now where the date Whirlpool actually closed the doors and the jobs on that date were lost - between Springboard Engineering, Trinity (Structural Towers), TPI (Composites), the speedway, other businesses that either were here already and have grown, or are new to the community - the number of jobs have been replaced. From that standpoint, we're actually at the same level we were at when Whirlpool shut the lights out and locked the door."
The Iowa Speedway was a catalyst for some of that growth, aided by a 10-year sales tax abatement from the state in 2005 before the facility was fully constructed. Built on 226 acres of farmland, the track now has an assessed value of $44 million.
Iowa Speedway has paid Newton, as of March, $911,340 from ticket surcharges and interest on a loan, according to public documents requested by The Des Moines Sunday Register. The money is derived from a $1-per-ticket surcharge and helps service a bonded loan the city took out to pay for infrastructure around the speedway.
"What they're paying provides, basically, the interest payments for that," Hamilton said.
Jauron said Iowa Speedway has about 25 full-time employees, but estimated more than 300 part-time workers. There also are volunteers from nonprofit and civic groups who share in concessions revenue, are employed by the facility on race weekends and other big events.
"Easily, there are 400-500 people who are benefiting from our race weekends," Jauron said of the employees and volunteers. "We literally have part-time people who will take time off from their full-time jobs to come work (here) because they love the track so much. That's amazing."
The track that Rusty Wallace built continues to spur growth at the spot where fans depart the interstate highway to wind into the facility's cornfield-ringed environs.
The exit, once devoid of business development, now includes a Love's Truck Stop with a McDonalds inside, Prairie Gas, and a recently opened chain hotel, the AmericInn.
Hamilton said there has been discussion of building another hotel in close proximity to the track as well.
Fisher's hotel, Prairie Suites, is slated to open later this fall.
The presence of Iowa Speedway, Fisher said, sparked the plans for him and wife, Melissa, to offer establishments along exit 168. Fisher hopes there are more business and entertainment developments to come — for him and the city.
"To see what (Iowa Speedway CEO Stan Clement and other officials) could take," Fisher said, "which was a cornfield, and turn it into a (multi-million dollar) facility and bring in the top racers in the United States and worldwide, in the Indy Racing League, to our hometown - that has been a lot of the inspiration for what I've decided to do at that location,"
It's unclear how much impact race weekends have on downtown Newton since race fans tend to congregate around the racetrack. But downtown storefronts, real estate offices and banks feature posters touting next weekend's races.
Ashley Swank of Newton, a working manager at the Country Kitchen off exit 164 that leads into the heart of town, said race weekend traffic at the restaurant depends on the time of day a race is held. Swank estimates, though, an uptick in business next weekend of about one-third over normal levels.
She said the impact is growing with time, and the addition of races at the track.
"When it first started, of course, it wasn't as popular as it is (now), and we didn't see a whole lot at first, so we were kind of discouraged," said Swank, who also is a race fan. "But the more popular it gets, the more races they have, obviously, we're getting more business from the racing."
Scott Goodyear, IndyCar racing analyst for ABC, said he has stayed downtown at each of the previous two Iowa Corn Indy 250s.
"I run in the morning, and they had a farmers market there (Saturday)," he said. "I bumped into that. It's fun. It's nice. It's a nice town, very pleasant."
Linda Bacon of the Newton Convention and Visitors Bureau said the group has not yet conducted an economic-impact study, but said the track's impact on tourism is "huge."
"Our projection would be the other businesses in town are impacted if not directly, then indirectly in a positive way just because of all the activities that go on around Iowa Speedway," said Bacon, who noted downtown events such as Thursday's Hauler Parade along First Avenue also draw crowds into downtown.
One impact is easily quantifiable: With roughly 40,000 fans expected for next weekend's events - and even more for the Aug. 1 Nationwide Series race - hotel rooms fill up fast.
"We've started a waiting list," said Judy Johnson, manager of the downtown Holiday Inn Express.
Johnson said a number of race teams, including people affiliated with Target Chip Ganassi Racing, have stayed at the hotel.
She said the hotel is at capacity for all racing weekends and many patrons book rooms to coincide with next season's event as they drop off their room keys.
"They just get right on it," she said.
Iowa Speedway's timely arrival has proved critical as Newton reinvents itself, Hamilton said.
"We're still thriving," Hamilton said. "Obviously there's always room for improvement, and we're always looking to find an employer that might pay a little more, or might be in a different area than we currently have to help diversify ourselves, but Newton's doing fine."
So is Fisher, whose family will once again take an all-hands-on-deck approach to next weekend.
"You know how dollars rotate and revolve; we wanted to get that started back in our community," said Fisher, whose hotel venture with Halferty is being built under the banner of HNF Development Co., which stands for Halferty, Newton and Fisher. "I think our community has become a destination community."
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