Start Your Engines: It's Here

By JOEL LANDAU
Staff Writer
jlandau@thedailyjournal.com

MILLVILLE - As the opening of the New Jersey Motorsports Park approaches, officials have to worry about finding enough people to staff the massive racetrack and entertainment complex. And they will first look inside Cumberland County. City officials and local businesses are anticipating an economic boon from the tourists who will frequent the park during the year.

The park's project overview estimates a total of 1,520 full- and part- time jobs will emerge from the park's operations and numerous commercial properties on the site near Millville Airport, such as hotels and restaurants. Not all of those jobs will go to local residents, but park officials estimate as many as 1,000 local residents could benefit from direct employment at the site. Joe Savaro, principal investor at the park, said the resort's leaders hope to have a management team hired by the end of April.

The first phase of hires will include support staff, marketing, operations management, accounting, human resources, sales, safety, emergency management, security, fire and rescue, and workers for clubhouses and galleries, he said. The first phase of the park is scheduled to be complete by the end of the summer and will include about 200 jobs, Savaro said. Other waves of employment will occur over the next few years, and additional development - including hotels, restaurants and activities outside the park grounds - could mean another 1,320 jobs.

Savaro said it will be important to hire local residents, but noted park officials won't have direct control over all the hiring because some of that would be done by other contractors who establish businesses at the park.

"We'll do as much as we can to have as many local people as possible," he said. "The community is a part of every aspect" of the park. The motorsports park would be the largest single economic development project in Cumberland County's history.

Millville resident Don Fauerbach, the park's newly named general manager, said many people will be qualified for jobs there, even if they have no experience in racing. "You don't have to know about motorsports to be an accountant at a motorsports park," he said. The park's offices receive resumes every day from people along the East Coast, but the majority are from county residents, Fauerbach said.

"It's still early in the game, but right now, we have no problem finding people," Savaro said. The park has also received requests from local organizations and seniors about volunteering on event days, Fauerbach said. "It's exciting," he said about the park. "They want to be a part of it."

The construction itself - which park officials say is the largest construction project currently occurring in New Jersey - has also meant plenty of jobs for local residents. Savaro said as many as 150 people have worked construction at the park at one time. About 50 to 60 people are working through the winter months. All the construction companies are local, Fauerbach said.

"The park is being built by South Jersey," he said. Park officials also are working to develop talent for future uses. Darlene Barber, superintendent of the Cumberland County Technical Education Center in Deerfield, and Kim Wood, county marketing director, are co-chairs of an education committee designed to fill the park's future employment needs. Bill Shaughnessy, spokesman for the TEC, said the school is working on new curriculum to train students on the type of vehicles that will be used at the park.

Twenty-two students have enrolled in a yearlong course about maintaining buildings like those at the park. Shaughnessy said he expects more people to attend classes at the school, once the park is operating.

"Once it's up and running, we can work with them and decide what kind of curriculum and things are necessary for high-performance vehicles," he said.