JC Reindl

Detroit Free Press

Demolition is under way on a failed $50-million horse racing track that was one of Wayne County's biggest economic development debacles of the past decade.

The abandoned Pinnacle Race Course near Detroit Metro Airport, which opened in 2008 and closed in 2010, saw its main pavilion ripped apart Monday by excavating equipment.

The demolition followed an agreement this summer between the property's owner and the administration of County Executive Warren Evans to clean up and clear out the 320-acre site at 18000 Vining Road in Huron Township to help spur redevelopment there.

A real estate listing online shows the property for sale with an $8-million asking price. The property's unpaid tax bill is at least $2.3 million, county officials said.

The demolition work, which started Friday, also follows the recent personal bankruptcy of Jerry Campbell, who was once described as the track's "founder." His wife, Lisa Campbell, was the track's chairman and CEO. Other investors included Jack Krasula, a WJR-AM radio show host and founder of the Southfield-based Trustinus executive search firm.

Campbell filed for bankruptcy on Jan. 12 citing at least $4.8 million in unpaid debt related to the Pinnacle track project, which opened amid the recession and a long decline in horse racing's popularity in Michigan. Campbell also founded the former Ann Arbor-based Republic Bancorp.

"In hindsight, the timing for the opening of the track could not have been worse," Campbell's attorney, Camille Iurillo of the Florida-based Iurillo Law Group, wrote in court documents.

Wayne County spokesman Ryan Bridges said the track's demolition is being undertaken and financed by Post It Stables, the racetrack's corporate entity. The county threatened the group with legal action unless a "nuisance abatement" occurred, he said.

"Everyone knows that this was a terrible business deal," Bridges said.

But years earlier, the Pinnacle track was a celebrated economic development project for Wayne County, which invested $26.6 million in sewer and other infrastructure improvements to get the thoroughbred track up and running. The Wayne County Land Bank also sold the entire 320-acre property to Campbell and other racetrack investors for $1.

In exchange for the $1 deal, the track's corporation promised to create or retain 1,100 construction jobs and 1,200 full-time permanent jobs or suffer financial penalties based on the estimated market value of the land, at the time $8.6 million.

The Pinnacle track struggled financially almost immediately upon opening and fell behind on property taxes. Financial records show the track lost $2.5 million in 2009 and $4.8 million in 2010. Efforts to revive the track by creating a “racino” with slot machines failed.

Some local officials were surprised when the county signed off on documents that said Pinnacle created or retained more than 1,500 full-time jobs (not including construction) during just its first year. A subsequent 2011 report by the Wayne County Auditor General said the land bank’s bookkeeping was so shoddy that auditors couldn’t accurately tally the Pinnacle job numbers, which counted UPS delivery persons as full-time jobs.

Jerry Campbell and Lisa Campbell now live in Florida, where Jerry Campbell is chairman, president and CEO of Tampa-based HomeBancorp. Campbell's bankruptcy filings say the couple own two properties in Florida and three in Michigan and that Jerry Campbell earned a base salary of $472,500 in 2015 from his bank and may still receive a bonus.

Attorneys for Campbell did not return messages on Monday seeking comment. In a 2014 interview with the Free Press, Campbell said he invested more than $6 million in cash in the track "and lost it all and then some ... when the track closed down, I paid a number of the corporate obligations with my own personal funds."

Campbell made headlines that same year when it became known that he was a lead business partner with the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians in their ongoing attempt to open off-reservation Indian casinos. The tribe is seeking to open one in Lansing and also near the shuttered Pinnacle track by re-purposing an empty megachurch building at 36181 Sibley Road.

The Sault is the same tribe that opened Detroit’s Greektown Casino as a non-tribal venture but lost control in a 2008 bankruptcy. The tribe also bought 7 acres at the Pinnacle track in 2010 for a reported $179,000 — part of the same acreage that the Wayne County Land Bank sold for $1.

"It is more than ironic that both the Sault tribe and its principal investor in off-reservation casino schemes have now both gone bankrupt," said James Nye, a representative for a coalition of tribal governments and the three Detroit casinos who all oppose the Sault's casino plans.

The tribe's casino plans are on hold while awaiting a decision by the U.S. Department of the Interior on the proposed Lansing and Romulus-area properties.

“Mr. Campbell has been a valuable partner and supporter of the Sault Tribe for many years," John Wernet, general counsel for the Sault, said in a statement Monday. "While his personal financial circumstances are unfortunate, our proposed casinos in Michigan include a number of investors. Mr. Campbell’s personal financial situation has no bearing or material effect on our projects."

Contact JC Reindl: 313-222-6631 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JCReindl.

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