{"id":1048313,"date":"2026-06-25T02:54:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T02:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1048313\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T02:54:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T02:54:22","slug":"birmingham-city-council-approves-land-sale-for-karting-facility-near-barber-motorsports-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1048313\/","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham City Council approves land sale for karting facility near Barber Motorsports Park"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wbrc.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">WBRC<\/a>) &#8211; The Birmingham City Council has approved the sale of 25 acres along Barber Motorsports Parkway for a new karting facility that developers say will include both training and entertainment elements.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">City leaders said the land at the Grand River Technology Park has sat undeveloped for about eight years, and they believe the area\u2019s existing automotive connections will help support the project.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWhen people hear go-kart racing, they think something more gimmicky or for children, state fairground type. This is not that,\u201d Councilman Hunter Williams said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Developers said the facility is intended to serve casual fans and more competitive racers, pointing to Alabama\u2019s racing and automotive communities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cAlabama has a really big racing community that not everybody knows of, and a really big automobile community,\u201d Ethan Shaw of OWENR and BK Propco said. \u201cSo this is a really good opportunity next to Barber Motorsports to have this kind of facility.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Williams said many drivers start and train on go-karts before moving into IndyCar or Formula 1.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Developers described the facility as unique to the Southeast, and city leaders said they expect it to bring an economic boost by drawing visitors to the area.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"Birmingham City Council approves land sale for racing training karting facility near Barber...\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/WL7OPDIU2RBFBJITO4RG5H6GNI.png\" width=\"980\" height=\"608\" \/>Birmingham City Council approves land sale for racing training karting facility near Barber Motorsports Park(WBRC)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI think that we can point to how this will be successful with the Mercedes school that\u2019s out there already, the Porsche school that\u2019s out there already,\u201d Williams said, adding that those programs bring employees and visitors to Birmingham.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Developers said the plans also include an entertainment aspect for families.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIt\u2019s there next to the current race track, it\u2019s next to Grand River shops, and it will spur other investments,\u201d Rob Wolfe, business manager for BK Propco, said. \u201cIt\u2019s a location for families to go for activities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The city is not providing any economic incentive for the project. Leaders said they hope to break ground next spring.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">Get news alerts in the <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/wbrc-fox6-news\/id449660326\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Apple App Store<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.raycom.wbrc&amp;hl=en_US&amp;gl=US\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Google Play Store<\/a> or subscribe to our email newsletter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbrc.com\/newsletter\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WBRC. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) &#8211; The Birmingham City Council has approved the sale of 25 acres along Barber Motorsports&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1048314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7820],"tags":[6304,288164,288165,855,984,748,393,288161,288162,288166,288167,4884,276068,288163,53620,1860,39287,12,1071,288169,9699,16,288168,15,39286],"class_list":["post-1048313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-birmingham","tag-alabama","tag-barber-motorsport-park","tag-barber-motorsports-park","tag-birmingham","tag-birmingham-city-council","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-go-kart","tag-go-kart-facility","tag-grand-river","tag-grand-river-technology-park","tag-great-britain","tag-jefferson-county","tag-karting-facility","tag-land-sale","tag-leeds","tag-myfoxal","tag-news","tag-racing","tag-st-clair-county","tag-training","tag-uk","tag-undeveloped-land","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wbrc"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116808495365697432","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1048313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1048314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1048313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1048313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1048313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}