Developer: Lorain Ohio Kartplex to combine entertainment, education at planned go-kart facility

Hundreds of acres of empty land stretch out on Lorain's east side behind Camaco Manufacturing. It abuts the Black River, dubbed Cromwell Park after the former landfill that occupied a portion of the site. For decades it has been green space, eventually, cut through by a bike path for the North Coast Inland Trail. But by this time next year, 37.5 acres will be home to a first-of-its-kind go-kart track and amenities, developer Kris McCrone said. McCrone, owner of Ohio Motorsports Park, hosted a groundbreaking for his project, Lorain Ohio Kartplex, late last month, three years after first pitching it to Lorain City Council. The $12 million project includes $2 million each in support from the city and county, with a stipulation that taxpayer dollars are used last in the development. McCrone does not plan to ask for any tax abatements. What will eventually be a 0.82-mile competition track, 0.42-mile rental track, 0.35-mile indoor track, esports arena, restaurant and event center and retail store, will employ about 40 full-time employees and another 90 part-timers, McCrone said, in everything from logistics and hospitality to mechanics and technicians. The outdoor kart tracks will be open about eight months out of the year, McCrone said, as they are able to comfortably operate above 40 degrees. "Frankly, this has warped into something bigger than I even thought," he said. "We didn't plan doing anything out of the gate, we planned on doing just one outdoor track." And then it kept growing, he said. After several City Council meetings, the project seemingly idled for several years until a June 15 deadline was announced following a lengthy executive session last month. McCrone said that the deadline came out of a February meeting he, his architect and co-developer had with Lorain Mayor Jack Bradley and Lorain County Commissioner Jeff Riddell about the project and a planned split between McCrone and Dr. Nick Jarmousek, owner of Xell LLC. McCrone and Jarmousek had originally partnered on the project, with McCrone set on the phase I go-kart tracks and other buildings, while Jarmousek was more interested in a larger racetrack and other amenities on a larger portion of the property. The pair have since split, with McCrone taking over Xell LLC's real estate holdings to retain the existing agreement for the American Rescue Plan Act funds from the county and city. That project will span 37.5 acres, with its outdoor tracks built on two cells of the former Cromwell Park landfill. He said building a racetrack on a landfill is not new — and pointed to NASCAR's Charlotte Motor Speedway as an example. The tracks will act as another cap on the now-cleared land. Trees that had started to grow and threatened to pierce the decades-old cap on the land were removed, and the asphalt track will be the only thing on those cells, McCrone said. The buildings will be built to the north, and any dirt dug out in that process will be moved as additional cover to the landfill cells. A wetland study found some in the corner of the space — which was not there in the mid-2000s, he said. Work on state Route 611 brought a mountain of dirt onto the site that stopped water from flowing to the Black River, and over the years created the patch of wetland on the space. McCrone said the area will not be touched in the development and is expected to dry up on its own. A retention pond will be built on-site. McCrone's plans for the city do not stop at building out a vacant tract of land. He hopes to create a curriculum with Lorain Schools, the Lorain County Joint Vocational School and Lorain County Community College starting in the 2025-26 school year. "Many people think 'I want to be a race car driver, right?'" he said. "... When you have one or two drivers in the Mercedes team, there's 450 employees around them … we want to work in the areas of operations, engineering, marketing, hospitality, logistics, shop work, welding, design." His plan is to offer a glimpse of the programming to elementary schoolers, with more hands-on training in middle school before transitioning to a certificate-style program at the high school level. He said he's seen a village step up to raise students in Lorain — grandparents, aunts and uncles, church groups and nonprofits and asked why couldn't the motorsports park be a part of that community too. Lorain Schools Superintendent Jeff Graham said the district was open to community partnerships that would benefit students. While McCrone has not developed a curriculum like this, he said he worked as a marketing ambassador for Junior Achievement of Greater Cleveland and facilitated their program in Lakewood Schools. Junior Achievement of Greater Cleveland connects volunteers with students to teach entrepreneurship, financial literacy and work readiness. He vowed he would not be undertaking the motorsports complex without doing the education partnership with the schools. "The reason I'm doing this is that — when I walked out of my office in 2019 and I had the vision — God gave me a vision — why can't we do something and really change motorsports because I was involved in the sport as a kid," he said. McCrone and his father worked on and raced carts, he said, but after his father died, McCrone walked away from the sport. It was not until McCrone's kids found photos of him and they wanted to get involved in it that he got back into the industry, he said. McCrone's vision: Why can't Northeast Ohio be home to a training center for the sport? And why can't he help the community in the process? "I want it to become so common that when the little kid like myself, when I was little 'I want to be a firefighter, I want to be a policeman, I want to be a lawyer, I want to be a doctor, right?' I want to work in motorsports and I believe we can change that culture at least in Lorain and give these kids some hope." Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.