Plans for indoor velodrome shift focus in Reading

When Fairgrounds Square Mall opened on the 5th Street Highway in Muhlenberg Township in fall of 1980, it was hoped to facilitate a retail boom at the site of the former Reading Fairgrounds Speedway.

Now, Dave Chauner and his World Cycling League are eyeing it as a potential site for the new indoor velodrome the group proposed to be put on Albright College property back in December 2016, the final plans of which were released back in April 2017.

“That's a very attractive site, but we have couple of different sites that some potential investors have asked us to take a look at that are closer to Philadelphia where there's a bigger market,” Chauner said during a phone call on Friday.

The $20-million proposed venue at Albright College was to have included a 200-meter indoor velodrome as the focus of a multi-sports facility that Albright could use to add complementary academic and athletic programs, but the project began outgrowing its proposed budget.

“We looked at some of the challenges we had at Albright, which included a lot more infrastructure with parking and getting in and out of the site, as well as the timing of getting things approved,” Chauner said.

Chauner and his group are investigating a number of sites where there is ample existing parking along with vacant bigbox retailer space that can be converted into a velodrome with multi-event possibilities, along with the development of an on-site hotel.

Placing a bicycling racing track — which officials of Valley Preferred Cycling Center in Trexlertown said at the time of the original announcement was not looked at as competition but as a complement to their worldrenowned outdoor facility — inside the Fairgrounds Square Mall, where ample parking already exists, fits those goals.

“We've created a viable business model as a multi-purpose arena with cycling as it's anchor activity,” Chauner said. “We're looking at suburban areas where this is needed.

“There's a lot of opportunity around the Philadelphia area and Berks County where we've identified events like concerts that can be held on the infield area, box lacrosse, cheerleading competitions in a smaller family entertainment model where you don't have to go into the city and pay the parking and all those other costs.”

The proposed velodrome would feature approximately 2,500 permanent seats, and up to 3,500 for concerts and other events depending on the type of stage necessary.

Chauner said it's unfortunate that his group had to end the project at Albright College, but was hopeful that if the facility is close enough to the college, many of the initial objectives for Albright's academic and athletic endeavors can still be met.

Chauner said one of the most important objectives for the World Cycling League is to develop a media partnership to provide television coverage of events staged at the proposed arena.

“I honestly don't believe a new velodrome can be successful if you don't have media partnerships from the beginning,” he said.

That's a lesson Chauner learned when he co-founded the Pro Cycling Tour with the late Jerry Casale and promoted several road and stage rages, including the legendary Philadelphia International that made the “Manayunk Wall” climb famous.

Chauner led a group called Velodrome Management Group (VMG) in Norristown back in 2006 when he proposed a similar indoor velodrome with a 250-meter track that could seat 2,500 for a 14-acre site that included a vacant semi-conductor plant near Valley Forge National Park. That Super fund classified site deal fell through.

Chauner said his group is almost at the threshold of raising $5 million to begin active construction or interior renovation once a site is chosen and contracts are signed.

Back when the plan was announced for the Albright College site, the group was looking to get approximately $5 million in New Market Tax Credits, incentives for private investors. Those tax incentives are earmarked to revitalize low-income, impoverished areas, or former industrial sites.

There are just two indoor velodromes in the country: the landmark VELO Sports Center on Carson, Calif., just outside of Los Angeles, and the domed Lexus Velodrome in Detroit, Mich.

“Our goal is we would love to be open in 2020, either before or after the Olympics so that we can take full advantage of the Olympic momentum,” he said.