Wal-Mart Gives Green Flag to Racing Venue

PHOENIX-A vacant Wal-Mart will take on new life as an indoor racetrack and entertainment complex under a sublease deal that will bring the property to full occupancy for the first time in three years.

F-1 Race Factory LLC inked a seven-year lease with Wal-Mart and is presently renovating the 113,827-sf former retail complex at 317 S. 48th St. in the city with plans to open the entertainment venue by early next year. Terms of the lease were not disclosed, but the building was on the market at a rate of $8 per sf triple net.

The renovations will turn the former Wal-Mart into a state-of-the art gaming venue with an 80,000-sf racetrack for go-karts and 20,000 sf of electronic entertainment along with 14,000 sf of office area, John Filli, senior associate with NAI Horizon, tells GlobeSt.com. The new tenants also are planning to build a restaurant inside the building, he says.

“It’s a milestone,” Filli says of the venture, one of the first of its type in the Valley. “The building has been sitting vacant for three years and this will help add tax dollars to the city and also brighten up the neighborhood.”

Filli says Wal-Mart vacated the property about three years ago when the retail giant moved to another location. Chambers Moving and Storage occupied about 3,500 sf for a time, but it has remained primarily vacant until F-1 Racing came along.

Filli, along with senior associates Jeff Hays and Tom Young, all with NAI Horizon, negotiated the lease on behalf of Wal-Mart with the assistance of Bruce Isaac, senior vice president of NAI Isaac Commercial Properties Inc. in Lexington, KY. The tenant was represented by locally based Phillip Anderson of Fortis Advisors.