EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ-Coming one year to the week after the State of New Jersey said it was getting out of the racing business, a shortened 81-day racing schedule at the Meadowlands Racetrack was approved today as the next step in the track’s privatization.
New Meadowlands LLC, owned by Jeffrey Gural, should complete the agreements to take over the facility on Wednesday, with live racing to resume on January 6, says Leo McNamara, executive administrator of the Standardbred Breeders & Owners Association of New Jersey, verifying a report in the Bergen Record.
“I don’t see any major roadblocks,” McNamara tells GlobeSt.com. The SBOA will be an advisory partner to the new ownership.
Gural, he notes, has been consulting with the New Jersey Sports and Exhibition Authority since he was brought in by the SBOA after Gov. Chris Christie informed both the Authority and the Association last December that the state would cease operating the Racetrack, which was posting losses of $10 million annually. (The state continues to own the land.) Gural is chairman of New York City-based Newmark Knight Frank, and owner, chairman and CEO of American Racing and Entertainment, which operates two casinos in Upstate New York.
After performing due diligence, Gural announced plans for a 30-year lease for the facility, and $100 million in construction, including the building of a smaller grandstand to open in the spring of 2013, and revisions to the construction of an off-track wagering facility on Route 440 and East 5th Street in Bayonne, NJ. Gural downsized the original Bayonne plans, eliminating the entire second floor.
“Our plan is to completely change the model,” Gural said in a March interview with the Meadowlands Racetrack. Other plans included introducing new forms of wagering, including over the Internet. “Bayonne is still on track for a July 2012 opening,” McNamara says. “They’re putting in the utilities and all site work has been approved.”
Gural also negotiated pay cuts of 20% for staff pretty much across the board, he says, though a couple of minor union-related agreements must be finalized.
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