Extreme sports on the way

Sunday, May 18, 2003

By KELLY WARBOYS

TRENTON - XArena Motor Sports broke ground yesterday for the first indoor motorcross and action sports arena in the country, a $25.5 million, 230,000-square-foot facility to be built between Route 1 and Brunswick Avenue.

"XArena will successfully bring the sport as we know it today out of its muddy, rut-laden tracks to a 21st century indoor, professional motorcross facility," said Clayton Keeler, president and founder of XArena Motor Sports (XMS).

Keeler, who has a passion for the sport of motorcross and the injuries to prove it, gave an emotionally charged speech to a crowd of about 50 at yesterday's festivities.

Construction will begin this month on the 11-acre site at the corner of Sylvester and New York avenues and is projected to be completed in late fall.

The long vacant and polluted property owned by Public Service Electric & Gas Co. is the former site of a manufacturing plant that has been out of operation since the late '80s.

Corporate property consultant Nicholas Arocha said a $14 million cleanup of the site was finished several months ago. "The old industrial site was cleaned up in accordance with NJDP regulations," he said.

XMS has a 50-year lease on the site.

XArena Motor Sports will be the first full-time indoor extreme sports facility in the United States and will appeal to extreme athletes, said Ryan Marshall, director of marketing. "Our driving goal is to bring the X-games back to the East Coast," he said.

Besides two motorcycle racetracks, the three-story facility will feature a 100-foot-tall wind tunnel for indoor skydiving and areas for BMX racing and in-line skating. Other amenities will include a pro shop, brew pub, themed restaurant and food court and a virtual reality game room.

The arena, designed by Hillier, a Princeton-based architectural firm, will have seating for 2,500 spectators and room for up to 400 bikers to race on two adjoining arenas. The larger arena will be 90,000 square feet and the second 75,000 square feet, Marshall said.

Although motorcross will be the main venue, Marshall said the facility is not restricted to that. The arena has the capacity to hold a concert in one arena simultaneously with a motorcross race in the other, he said.

Hillier's design for the arena was honored by the American Institute of Architects in November.

The site has been approved by the city planning board and both the mayor and members of the city council have endorsed bringing the estimated $1 million ratable.

When XArena unveiled its plans to the city back in July, Mayor Douglas H. Palmer said, he had doubts about the project's feasibility, giving it about a 70 percent chance of completion. But yesterday, with a shovel and mound of dirt at hand, he was more optimistic.

Palmer said the motorcross-and-skydiving facility will make the city even more of a destination. Luring visitors to spend money in the city is a high priority for officials here. In the past 10 years, a baseball stadium, arena and 197-room hotel have all been developed.

"This continues to make Trenton an entertainment hub in this region," Palmer said. "It will produce local jobs, help our local economy and businesses."

Copyright 2003 The Times. Used with permission.