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By John Hilton, Sentinel Reporter, June 13, 2006

Last updated: Tuesday, June 13, 2006 11:57 AM EDT

A tentative deal is in place to sell Carlisle Fairgrounds and move Carlisle Productions to an undisclosed location near the border of Cumberland and York counties.

Company officials say they will sign off on the deal if North Middleton Township approves a $6 million “Readiness Center” proposed by the adjacent Pennsylvania Army National Guard unit on Cavalry Road.

Carlisle Productions CEO John Detrick says the expansion along the east border of the fairgrounds will create too many problems to continue to hold car shows there.

“We have a buyer for the 82-acre fairgrounds,” Detrick says. “I cannot say who they are. But we are looking very seriously at leaving Carlisle.”

Detrick says he toured a potential new site for Carlisle Productions Saturday and is taking members of his management team for a second look at the property today.

He declined to reveal the location of the site, other than to say it is “near the border of Cumberland and York counties.”

Meanwhile, Carlisle Productions has taken the first step towards leaving — listing its Carlisle Expo Center with Landmark Realty for $3.5 million. The company purchased the former Piezo Crystal plant property at North West and K streets in 2002. Included are a six-acre site, 30,000-square-foot building and more than 300 parking spaces.

Carlisle Productions plans to fight the Army National Guard plans “until the end,” Detrick says. The buyer for the fairgrounds has agreed to wait until that fight is resolved, he adds. Detrick declined to reveal any details about the proposed buyer.

Guard expansion

North Middleton supervisors held one public hearing on the Pennsylvania Army National Guard unit’s conditional use application for a 38,749-square-foot readiness center to be built on the armory’s 45 acres. The project also is to include a 13,000-square-foot maintenance center to replace a garage on the site.

Supervisor Chairman Robert Shearer says Detrick was the only neighbor to speak in opposition of the proposal. In late May the Army National Guard requested that the public hearing be continued.

“I have no idea when they’ll be back for that,” says Shearer, who declined comment on Carlisle Productions. “The ball’s in (the Army National Guard’s) court.”

Preliminary sketch plans for the readiness center include a general administration area, assembly hall, classrooms, a kitchen, restrooms, shower facilities, lockers, a physical fitness area and a family support room for spouses and children of deployed battalion members. The two older buildings may be leased to the Gobin Guard Association to turn into a museum.

What has Carlisle Productions ready to pack up and leave is the unit’s transformation into a Stryker brigade.

The armored combat Stryker, the Army’s newest troop transport vehicle, moves quickly and quietly on wheels rather than tracks.

“Stryker is so much more than the vehicle,” Capt. Cory Angell of the Guard’s public affairs office at Fort Indiantown Gap, told The Sentinel in April. “The key to the Stryker is communication. It’s a new way to fight.”

The vehicle features new cannons, digitized and automated equipment, a tactical intranet to communicate on the battlefield and artillery computers.

Pennsylvania is the only state whose National Guard has been commissioned to house a Stryker brigade, officials have said. The five other Stryker brigades in the country are part of the active Army.

Since the transformation is still under way at Carlisle Armory, officials say the unit has not been deployed to fight yet — but its members are being prepared for that.

And Detrick is worried about the ramifications.

The Army National Guard locked down the area once, following 9/11, and allowed no traffic in and out of Cavalry Road, Detrick says. That incident was classified as a “non-specific threat,” he notes.

If the expansion plans are allowed and the Stryker Brigade installed, Detrick says the Army National Guard is likely to heighten its sensitivity to security threats. If a lockdown were to take place during a car show, it would be a disaster for Carlisle Productions, he says, which relies on the land for much-needed parking.

Bill Miller and the late Chip Miller (no relation) held their first car show at the Carlisle Fairgrounds in September 1974.

Long legacy

Today Carlisle Productions conducts 11 shows annually at three locations, employs 275 — 25 full-time employees and the rest are seasonal help — and is regarded as one of the top car-show locations in the nation. The events bring in $97 million annually to the local economy, company officials said last year.

Chip Miller died in March 2004 and his widow, Judy Miller, took over as a full partner.

Detrick acknowledged that Carlisle Productions would greatly benefit by moving. The company would gain much more control of parking and concessions and likely find a site with better access routes.

“We would own 100 percent of the parking,” he says. “There’s a million dollars’ worth of business done outside these gates.”

The expo center was put on the market last week. In a story The Sentinel published last month, Detrick conceded the center was not performing as well as hoped. On Monday, he said the center’s performance “has not played any role” in the decision to sell the building.

Carlisle Productions merely wants to liquidate its assets in the event it decides to move quickly, he explains.

Still, Detrick insists Carlisle Productions does not want to leave. And he says the company is not looking for an excuse to leave.

“We don’t need a reason to leave; we’d just leave,” he says. “We’re going to fight this development until the end. Hopefully the outcome will result in us staying right where we are.”