Landowners wait to see if demand follows track

MARYSVILLE – The prospect of a track drawing NASCAR’s biggest racing series here makes some landowners content to keep their acres off the market – for now.

Snohomish County and Marysville have sent a proposal to the International Speedway Corp. of Daytona Beach, Fla., to build a 75,000-seat track with parking and camping space on several hundred acres south of the Arlington Airport.

The company is considering offers from the Puget Sound and Portland, Ore., regions, but no decision has been made.

A lot of folks would like to buy that land in north Marysville now, speculating that prices will go up if the track lands here, said Dave Nelson of Towne or Country Commercial Real Estate.

“We’ve put in offers on some property, but nobody is willing to sell,” Nelson said. “Everybody’s sitting on it.”

Some of the landowners are actually investment groups. One includes one of Nelson’s clients, Woody Wells, who owns 151 acres within the proposed track site.

Wells’ name and a Shoreline address is listed on county tax records, along with a group called Shoultes Partnership, which has an Everett address.

Wells could not be reached for comment, but one of his investment partners, Ed Hansen, was willing to talk about his involvement.

Hansen, the former Everett mayor who now heads the Snohomish County PUD, said he owns a minority interest in the land, based on a deal made for his former law firm, Williams, Novack and Hansen about 25 years ago.

“I think it had been farm land,” Hansen said. “It was not being farmed when we acquired it. I wasn’t directly involved.”

His involvement is simply a small part of a profit-sharing trust, Hansen said.

“Whether it’s NASCAR or something else, we’d certainly be interested in selling,” Hansen said, but he referred specific questions to Wells, with whom he said he hadn’t spoken in several years.

If NASCAR comes to north Marysville, people in Hansen’s and Wells’ position could make significantly more money than the current market for that land would net them, Nelson said.

“Quite frankly, I hope it happens,” Nelson said.

Reporter Scott Morris: 425-339-3292 or smorris@heraldnet.com.