by SidewaysTim » Sat Apr 19, 2008 8:38 pm
From the Courant this morning
WINDSOR - - Just short of the second anniversary of its opening in June of
2006, Mototown USA closed abruptly this week for the spring and summer, and
possibly for good.
Signs on the doors of the 200,000-square-foot indoor motocross venue
apologized to customers for the inconvenience and directed them to a number
to call to retrieve dirt bikes held in storage.
"Right place, wrong time," co-owner Tommy DeFranzo said of his
multimillion-dollar Day Hill Road brainchild on Thursday.
DeFranzo, a local resident and motocross enthusiast who began his quest to
turn Windsor into the indoor motorcycle racing capital of the Northeast in
2001, said the reason for shutting down operations was simple.
"It's the economy. We can't survive doing what we've been doing for the
summer," he said.
DeFranzo said the downturn in the economy, coupled with a sharp increase in
fuel and energy costs - his monthly electric bill is $12,000 - made
remaining open too risky a proposition.
"It's cheaper for us to remain closed. We don't want to lose the building,"
DeFranzo said, adding that riders with Mototown memberships are also feeling
the pinch at the gas pump and staying away from the track.
He said that all of the facility's bills are paid and up to date.
"Between the fuel costs and everything else, people are putting their bikes
away. Everyone is battening down the hatches," he said.
DeFranzo said he hoped to be able to market the building for other uses
during the summer and make another run at profitability when the weather
turns colder and the presidential election is decided.
"We're going to see what the new president brings," a hopeful DeFranzo said.
He said he was freezing about 60 existing full memberships. If the facility
does not reopen, those members would receive prorated refunds.
DeFranzo's partner, Dan Ferraina, who has been working in real estate for 45
years, said the prospects for reopening in October, if ever, are not good.
"The economics of the real world are different," he said. "I'm not
optimistic."
Baystate Jeepers
Official Tuner of Jay's CB