Heartland Motorsports Park has a new owner.
A Kansas City, Mo.-based company called Topeka 77, LLC, has purchased the Topeka properties that formerly were the site of Heartland Motorsports Park according to an article posted Sept. 30 in the Topeka Capital-Journal.
The company registered a deed for those 28 parcels Sept. 30 with Shawnee County while giving its mailing address as 2600 Grand Blvd., Suite 700. That is the same address as 145-year-old Kessinger, Hunter & Co., LC, the oldest commercial development company in Kansas City, Mo., which says on its website that it operates $2 billion worth of real estate and has 200 associates.
Topeka 77 on Sept. 30 paid Shawnee County $3,402,313 under protest in outstanding property taxes owed by the company that sold it the property, Chris Payne’s Raymore, Missouri-based Shelby Development, LLC, said Shawnee County Treasurer Larry Mah.
For the properties involved to be sold, Kansas law required their outstanding property taxes to be paid.
It wasn’t immediately clear how much Topeka 77 paid or what it plans to do with the properties.
Topeka 77, a Kansas domestic limited liability company, was registered July 31 as a business with the Kansas secretary of state’s office, according to the website for that office.
Payne said earlier this year he doubted the properties would be used as a racetrack and entertainment facility. He hadn’t responded to an email the newspaper sent him Sept. 30 seeking his thoughts about the sale of the properties.
Amid mounting debt from unpaid taxes and penalties it owed Shawnee County for the properties, Shelby Development closed Heartland Motorsports Park and ceased operations after its racing season finished late last year.
Shelby Development last summer sought to sell the Heartland Park properties in an auction, which was canceled in late July as it neared its end.
Heartland Park hosted the Menards NHRA Nationals presented by Pet Armor, Aug. 11-13, 2023, and then vanished from NHRA’s national circuit schedule.
Heartland Motorsports Park originally opened in 1989. The track went through a $15 million renovation in 2003. After being closed in 2015, the track was purchased at the beginning of 2016 revitalized to its former glory.
