A sprawling patch of grass that NASCAR has used for overflow parking during Speedway events for decades could soon become home to apartments, townhomes or even a scaled-down version of One Daytona. The roughly 200-acre property sits between Clyde Morris Boulevard and Jimmy Ann Drive in Daytona Beach, and its owners are now asking the city to let them build something permanent there instead of just parking cars a few times a year.
Planning Board Signs Off on the First Step
The Daytona Beach Planning & Zoning Board voted 6-0 to recommend a large-scale comprehensive plan amendment and a companion planned-development amendment covering the site, according to citizenportal.ai. That vote is only a recommendation, not a final approval. As reported by WDBO, both the Daytona Beach Planning Board and the City Commission must sign off on the rezoning before any dirt gets moved, and the request was presented to the planning board on October 22.
The land is owned by Event Equipment Leasing and Southeastern Hay & Nursery, two entities that are subsidiaries of NASCAR, per WDBO's reporting. According to Sports Business Journal, the same two companies also own the property outright and are managed by NASCAR. The pair is represented by the Cobb Cole law firm, WDBO reports, and current zoning on the parcel only allows commercial or industrial buildings, not homes.
How Big, and How Much Could Get Built
Sources differ slightly on the exact size of the parcel known as NASCAR Lot 7. Sports Business Journal describes it as 191.41 acres, while hometownnewsvolusia.com puts the figure at 191.73 acres; WDBO describes it simply as roughly 200 acres. Whatever the precise number, the amendments under review would shift about 191 acres from a general industry designation to mixed use, per citizenportal.ai, opening the door to residential uses that the current land-use designation does not support.
There are real limits attached to that flexibility. A report from Yahoo News states that the rezoning amendment would cap any future residential development at 2,500 units and cap peak-hour trips generated by the site at 4,861. Citizenportal.ai separately reports that the proposal would also establish a new neighborhood policy setting parameters for future development, alongside limits on floor-area ratio and unit counts.
No Developer Named Yet, But Big Comparisons Are on the Table
Nobody has named a specific developer or project for the site, according to WDBO's reporting. Instead, officials and reporting have floated the kinds of projects the rezoning could theoretically allow: townhome, apartment or single-family-home communities, or something far larger, as Sports Business Journal notes, pointing to One Daytona as a possible model for what large-scale development on the site could look like.
One Daytona, located across International Speedway Boulevard from Daytona International Speedway, opened in 2017 and includes two luxury hotels, a movie theater, Bass Pro Shops and dining options, per WDBO. A separate project description from vccusa.com puts One Daytona at 300,000 square feet of retail, entertainment and dining space, including an outdoor gathering spot called Victory Circle designed with motorsports inspiration drawn from the nearby Speedway. Yahoo News adds that One Daytona was built by turning a barren 181-acre site into what it calls a bustling plaza.
The rezoning request also pointed to Tanger Outlets as a comparable example, according to WDBO. That outlet center, located near I-95 and LPGA Boulevard, opened in late 2016 and includes more than 70 stores. WDBO reports the Lot 7 rezoning request specifically emphasized the site's proximity to the LPGA area as a selling point.
A Long Road Still Ahead
Even with the planning board's recommendation in hand, this process has a long way to go. WDBO reports that rezoning approval would next move to City Commission hearings, with the commission expected to hear the request twice before any final decision, and that the overall approval process will likely stretch well into 2027.
The push to rezone Lot 7 comes against the backdrop of a broader residential building boom in and around Daytona Beach over the past decade, which the city has attributed to low interest rates, strong in-migration and heightened demand for larger living spaces, according to WDBO. For now, the Lot 7 site remains what it has been for decades: an open grassy overflow lot that fills with cars only when the Speedway needs the extra space.
