Who ACTUALLY owns the track, at this point?
A number of years ago, when the Spencer brothers first started looking for buyers, they thought that the track was a "gold mine", and priced it accordingly. I was speaking with someone who, back then, was an associate of an "interested party", and he told me that the price was $1,000,000 FIRM....and if I understood it correctly, that did NOT include the property that makes up the parking lot (which is essential to the operation of the facility) because at least back then, the Spencers supposedly didn't own it, they just had a 99 year lease on it. I'm not sure if that's still the situation. (My friend's "associate" balked at the Spencer's offer, and walked away)
Supposedly, as the story went, back then, the Spencers (as well as a few others) thought that Xerox, and another fledgling Webster business or two, were going to grow at an exponential rate, chewing up the eastern side of Monroe County, as well as the western side of Wayne County, and the land that the track is on would become extremely valuable both for residential housing as well as retail business, to support those houses, and they priced it at what they thought was appropriate. Obviously, that never happened, as Xerox is now on a path that somewhat parallels Kodak's.
My point is, now that didn't happen, what the land is worth today. Would an apple processing plant actually spend serious money, just to acquire the land?? Secondly, while the track has enjoyed a somewhat contentious relationship with it's neighbors over the years, it does only operate about 12 weeks a year. I assume the apple processing plant would operate year round, which might not be something the people would want to have close by.
