Family bids for racing license

Plans are to build a racetrack within a year after the license is awarded.
& lt;a href=mailto:cioffi@vindy.com & gt;By LAURE CIOFFI & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW BEDFORD, Pa. -- The race for the last few remaining horse racetrack licenses in Pennsylvania is heating up, and a Lawrence County family is betting it has the best plan with a design for gaming, housing and retail shops.
Carmen Shick and his siblings -- Kenneth Shick Jr. and Kendra Taback -- outlined their design for Bedford Downs, just off U.S. Route 422 in Mahoning Township near the Pennsylvania-Ohio border, about seven miles west of New Castle.
The family has applied for both a harness track license and a thoroughbred horse track license with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. There are nine others seeking the state's last thoroughbred track license and four others seeking the harness track license, the agriculture department says.
Carmen Shick said his family hopes to come out with just one of the licenses.
"We applied for both as a matter of good business. Thoroughbred racing is more glamorous, but harness racing may be more practical," he said. "We would be thrilled with either."
Construction plans
Shick said plans for the 550-acre site -- one of the largest of the applicants -- call for the track to be built within 12 months after the license is awarded. Subsequent construction phases include a 200- to 400-room, full-service hotel, about 100 townhouse-type time-share dwellings and an outlet mall.
Shick said the family has a letter of intent to fund the $65 million project through National City Bank. He added his family also has working relationships with Sky Bank in New Castle and First Place Bank in Boardman for possible additional funding.
The family hopes to go forward with the residential and retail plans even if the horse racing license isn't granted, but that decision will ultimately be made by the bank, Shick said.
The Shicks have assembled a management team that includes Renaissance Partners LC, a Texas-based management-consulting firm, and managers from Sam Houston Race Park in Houston. Gralla Architects LLC of Oklahoma is designing the track.
C.D. Ambrosia company
The family business -- founded more than 70 years ago by grandfather Carmen D. Ambrosia -- encompasses strip mining, building and trucking.
The proposed racetrack site is a reclaimed strip mine that is now relatively level and is bounded by C.D. Ambrosia business offices on Route 422 and the family homestead at the other end.
Shick, 41, of New Castle, joked that his grandmother wouldn't allow him to proceed with the project unless it was something good.
A bevy of local elected officials, as well as leaders of the county's Republican and Democratic parties, came out Thursday to support the project expected to create 500 to 700 jobs in the first phase.
"It would guarantee the success of most other economic development in Lawrence County," said Peter Vesella, county Democratic Party chairman. "This is the threshold of a dynamic future."
Others, such as District Attorney Matthew Mangino, urged residents to contact state legislators by telephone or e-mail and express project support.
Commissions deciding
State officials are now investigating the viability of all of the license applicants, said Anton Lepper, executive director of the Pennsylvania Harness Racing Commission. That includes looking at each applicant's financial viability and other requirements such as land ownership, he said.
Once complete, public hearings will be scheduled near each racetrack site to gather public comment.
The harness racing and thoroughbred commissions -- each consisting of three members -- will then make a decision.
"There are several facets of consideration they will take in, but the bottom line will be what is in the best interest of racing generally," Lepper said.
Former state lawmaker Roy Wilt of Greenville is chairman of the harness racing commission, Lepper said. The other two members hail from Mechanicsburg, Pa. Names of the thoroughbred commission were not available from the state.
& lt;a href=mailto:cioffi@vindy.com & gt;cioffi@vindy.com & lt;/a & gt;