$100M Industrial park to be built near historic SC speedway. Here’s the plan

A 115-acre tract adjacent to the historic and now closed Greenville Pickens Speedway will be developed as Speedway Business & Technology Park.

Developer RealtyLink recently announced plans for the first phase of what will ultimately be a 600-acre industrial park in Easley. The company said in a news release it will invest $100 million in Phase I and have 1 million square feet of industrial space.

On its website, RealtyLink shows 10 buildings on the entire site, primarily for warehouses and distribution, and will offer 4 million square feet of space.

RealtyLink plans to build sidewalks, walking trails and other amenities.

The release said Phil Wilson and Stan Tzouvelekas of RealtyLink, along with CBRE, are in the process of signing tenants.

Neither could be reached for comment on a timeline for build out and whether the speedway property was part of the purchase from Kevin Whitaker, a Greenville car dealer who has owned the speedway and surrounding property since 2003.

The 83-year-old racetrack did not operate during the racing season last year, the first time since World War II that racing was dark.

Racer Jackie Manley spearheaded a fundraising campaign to operate the track but was not able to raise the $100,000 required by Whitaker.

The group raised $60,000, which was donated to Shriners Hospital.

Greenville Pickens Speedway opened in 1940 as a half-mile-long dirt track. When racing resumed after the war on Independence Day, fans saw two horse races and a car race promoted by Bill France Sr., who two years later founded NASCAR.

The Blackwell family bought the track in 1955, the same year NASCAR began sanctioning races there. The track, later paved, hosted various Winston Cup races through the years.

Richard Petty, Junior Johnson, David Pearson, Dale Earnhardt and his son Dale Jr., raced there. Many of the legendary racers’ names remain painted on the walls surrounding the track.