More than a decade after the final horses crossed the finish line, the former Atlantic City Race Course is moving closer to an entirely new identity.
Patriot Equities, a real estate development firm based in Wayne, Pennsylvania, has purchased approximately 110 acres of the historic Mays Landing property, including the former racetrack and grandstand area. The acquisition comes as Amazon moves forward with plans for a massive fulfillment center on the other portion of the former race course.
Together, the deals could bring some of the most significant changes to the property since the track closed in 2015.
Patriot purchased its approximately 110-acre parcel from Greenwood ACRA, which had owned the race course for more than two decades. The sale price has not been disclosed. Greenwood purchased the roughly 255-acre race course property for $13 million in 2001, originally envisioning an off-track betting facility that was never built.
Patriot CEO Erik Kolar told the Philadelphia Business Journal that the company had initially considered buying the entire property before learning that Amazon was also interested in the site. The land was ultimately divided, creating separate areas for Amazon and Patriot to develop.
Patriot is now considering a mixed-use redevelopment incorporating both residential and commercial uses. Single-family homes are not part of the company’s current vision, while other forms of housing could be developed alongside businesses that complement activity generated by Amazon’s neighboring facility. No formal construction timeline has been announced.
Some pieces of the race course’s past could potentially survive the transformation.
Kolar has said Patriot is considering preserving the pond in the center of the former track, potentially incorporating it as a feature within a future residential development. The company is also examining whether portions of the grandstand could be preserved, although no final decision has been made.
The sale follows major movement on the other portion of the sprawling property.
Amazon plans to construct a roughly 1.2-million-square-foot fulfillment center on the former stable and paddock area. An interior mezzanine is expected to bring the building’s total operational space to more than 2 million square feet, with approximately 750 full-time jobs anticipated. The company revised its earlier multistory proposal this year in favor of a sprawling single-story design.
An Amazon affiliate completed its acquisition of its portion of the property Sept. 2, according to reports citing Atlantic County Clerk records.
Hamilton Township has also approved a 29-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement for the Amazon project. Township officials have said the development could generate millions of dollars in annual revenue while putting a property that has sat largely dormant for years back into productive use.
For longtime South Jersey residents, however, the land carries a history that stretches far beyond warehouses and redevelopment plans.
The Atlantic City Race Course opened in 1946 and became one of the region’s premier entertainment destinations. Olympic rowing champion and prominent Philadelphia businessman John B. Kelly Sr., father of actress and Princess of Monaco Grace Kelly, was instrumental in its founding. Entertainment legends including Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope were among the track’s early investors.
At its height, the race course drew thousands of spectators and hosted dozens of racing days each year. The property also became part of music history in August 1969 when more than 100,000 people reportedly descended on the site for the Atlantic City Pop Festival, held just weeks before Woodstock.
But racing steadily declined in the decades that followed. Greenwood Racing acquired the property in 2001, and the track increasingly relied on simulcasting while reducing its live racing schedule. The final races were held in January 2015.
Since then, proposals for the property have included everything from offices and retail development to entertainment attractions and other commercial uses, but none resulted in a large-scale transformation.
That is poised to change.
Amazon’s project will reshape a substantial portion of the former track, while Patriot’s purchase places the recognizable grandstands, oval and infield in the hands of a developer considering an entirely different mix of uses.
Hamilton Township’s 2024 redevelopment plan was created specifically to encourage comprehensive redevelopment of the long-dormant property, which municipal officials have identified as an opportunity to strengthen the township’s commercial and residential base.
Details about exactly what Patriot will build — and how much of the old race course will remain recognizable — are still to come.
But after 11 years of watching the grandstands sit empty, the latest sale signals that the next chapter for one of South Jersey’s most storied properties may finally be taking shape.
Sarah Fertsch of Egg Harbor Township holds a Bachelors of Arts in Public Relations. She is a locally renowned poet, storyteller, and dog lover.
