Daytona lease problem looms for ISC
International Speedway Corporation could face problems in maintaining the favourable terms in its 50-year lease of the 443-acre Daytona International Speedway site in Florida, when it comes up for renewal in November 2007. ISC chief counsel Glenn Padgett said this week that the company would simply exercise a 25-year renewal option, but attorney Thomas Cobb, who negotiated the lease with Bill France Sr back in 1957, has asserted that this option is no longer valid
The lease provided France's company (the forerunner of ISC, which is now the USA's biggest circuit operator) with the right to use the property tax-free for 50 years, for annual 'sweetheart' rent ranging from $10,000 to $16,000. The renewal option, covering the 25 years 2007-32, called for annual rent of $20,000 a year. Cobb claims that this option has been invalidated because ISC has previously exercised, then rescinded it.
The original lease calls for the property (including all constructions on it) to revert to Volusia County public ownership at the end of the lease term, if a new lease cannot be negotiated.
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