Steel City Washington PA
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Steel City Hobbies - Indoor Racing
However, we are so eager to GET OPEN AND DO SOMETHING, we are building inside the Washington Mall. --Washington Mall? That place is a dump!?-- Well, it is not THAT bad, and it will be a great place to build TWO InDoor tracks; DIRT Off-Road and Carpet On-Road. We have 10,000 SF to house the dirt, and another 10,000 to house the on-road alone. We will have a total of about 28,000 SF under roof including store, tracks and pit area. All will be electric only for this year coming.
We are taking space for our showroom right now.... but the tracks will take form this summer. Please go ahead and ask questions where I and John (store management) will answer as best we can. This will be a fun project and will be ever-evolving to hopefully, building a stand-alone facility down the line in the not so distant future.
We have some info on our site: www.steelcityhobbies.com
[email protected]
:roll:
Well, Yes... it is official! Steel City Hobbies Flagship store is now under development and "should" open sometime in mid June. Gee... that is in two weeks!?! Well, Three at the latest I hope! We have great plans to expand the R/C world here in the Pittsburgh area, and it all starts in Washington PA. Why Washington? Well, we want to build a "Facility" that will house 2 indoor tracks; Dirt Off-Road (Nitro compatible), and On-Road Carpet. And, for hosting future nationally ranked events we need to be placed at the epicenter of the Western Pennsylvanian area, which is WashPa.kaug said:
However, we are so eager to GET OPEN AND DO SOMETHING, we are building inside the Washington Mall. --Washington Mall? That place is a dump!?-- Well, it is not THAT bad, and it will be a great place to build TWO InDoor tracks; DIRT Off-Road and Carpet On-Road. We have 10,000 SF to house the dirt, and another 10,000 to house the on-road alone. We will have a total of about 28,000 SF under roof including store, tracks and pit area. All will be electric only for this year coming.
We are taking space for our showroom right now.... but the tracks will take form this summer. Please go ahead and ask questions where I and John (store management) will answer as best we can. This will be a fun project and will be ever-evolving to hopefully, building a stand-alone facility down the line in the not so distant future.
We have some info on our site: www.steelcityhobbies.com
[email protected]
:roll:
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510 Posts
Ditto to everything said above. Knowing the people involved, it should be a sweet top notch facility. Not to mention extremely fun & competitive racing!
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733 Posts
When do you expect the off-road track to be ready for racing?
Is this going to be the place for " The best deal in RC- Two slices of pizza and a pop for $2.50"?
Is this going to be the place for " The best deal in RC- Two slices of pizza and a pop for $2.50"?
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1,395 Posts
Haha, if you are talking about Pizza Joes at River Junction... you have not had real pizza! :devil: We can work out something I am sure. New pizza places right next to the mall... Shorty's is just down the hall... some of the best dogs in town... and there are other places that are decent. But we will not be about stuffing your face... we are focusing on building a decent track for both on and off road! If you have any suggestions or comments, the time will be near for that.
We will begin to work on the On-Road track in July. We will begin to work on the off-road space in July as well, but that will take at least a month or two to be completed. We have a lot of prep work to do. Although, the more hands we have the faster we can get under way! :thumbsup:
We will begin to work on the On-Road track in July. We will begin to work on the off-road space in July as well, but that will take at least a month or two to be completed. We have a lot of prep work to do. Although, the more hands we have the faster we can get under way! :thumbsup:
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U812 can definitely build an off-road track! Also one of the nicest & fastest guys you'll ever race against.
How's that for brown-nosing Big Kev!:thumbsup:
Just kidding - U812 could be a big help! Look him up if you need help!
Later-
Mucho
How's that for brown-nosing Big Kev!:thumbsup:
Just kidding - U812 could be a big help! Look him up if you need help!
Later-
Mucho
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1,395 Posts
U812,
Yeah sure! After all... this track will belong to the racers, so any help will be great! The off-road space we have was some sort of storage warehouse as there are a lot of overhead trolley type rails. These rails will need to be taken down. The walls are cinder block, and it would be nice to paint them.... then we can throw the dirt right on the concrete floor. It will be a fun project, but it will be even more fun to run on it in the near future! We should be able to get started sometime in July, if not in August.
Mike!
Yeah sure! After all... this track will belong to the racers, so any help will be great! The off-road space we have was some sort of storage warehouse as there are a lot of overhead trolley type rails. These rails will need to be taken down. The walls are cinder block, and it would be nice to paint them.... then we can throw the dirt right on the concrete floor. It will be a fun project, but it will be even more fun to run on it in the near future! We should be able to get started sometime in July, if not in August.
Mike!
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1,395 Posts
River Junction will now remain open into the immediate future. We would like to continue racing in Beaver as well as keep the store open to support people who live in that area. RJ will serve as an “expansion link” of the Steel City Hobbies flagship store in Washington, PA. :freak:
Mike
I wish I would have thought of this sooner, probally to close to Washington PA for another track. At the Ohio Vally Mall in St.Clairsville OH there is an empty Hills/Ames building that is huge. You could easily put offroad and onroad plus an oval and drag strip under 1 roof along with a store. It has its own parking lot with it, it is in the malls circle but about 1/4 mile back behind it from the I70. I think it would be a good location as Cambridge,Oh about 30 min /NewPhilly,Oh abgout 45min/canton,oh 70 min/ zainesville 45min/ marrietta 60 min/stuebenville 60 min- Wheeling wv 10 min/ parkersburgh wv 70 min- Pittsburgh pa 65 min/ washington pa 30 min. But the washington sight already will cover half of this area. Cant wait to run on the new track.
Also might want to let Dave Montgomery know about the track. I know he does/used to race at CRCRC in columbus and drives from pittsburgh. It would be alot closer if you can get a good mod buggy class going. I think outside california the Ohio area has the fastest drivers (Dave M. Jesse Robbers Brian Handwork Scott Stoffer Allen Horne Chris Bing (when home from military) Curt May to name the ones off the top of my head). Also Toad Hodge and Adam Drake left the area to work for factory losi, and Brian Dunbar left to work for orion I believe. Just a few thoughts.
I wish I would have thought of this sooner, probally to close to Washington PA for another track. At the Ohio Vally Mall in St.Clairsville OH there is an empty Hills/Ames building that is huge. You could easily put offroad and onroad plus an oval and drag strip under 1 roof along with a store. It has its own parking lot with it, it is in the malls circle but about 1/4 mile back behind it from the I70. I think it would be a good location as Cambridge,Oh about 30 min /NewPhilly,Oh abgout 45min/canton,oh 70 min/ zainesville 45min/ marrietta 60 min/stuebenville 60 min- Wheeling wv 10 min/ parkersburgh wv 70 min- Pittsburgh pa 65 min/ washington pa 30 min. But the washington sight already will cover half of this area. Cant wait to run on the new track.
Also might want to let Dave Montgomery know about the track. I know he does/used to race at CRCRC in columbus and drives from pittsburgh. It would be alot closer if you can get a good mod buggy class going. I think outside california the Ohio area has the fastest drivers (Dave M. Jesse Robbers Brian Handwork Scott Stoffer Allen Horne Chris Bing (when home from military) Curt May to name the ones off the top of my head). Also Toad Hodge and Adam Drake left the area to work for factory losi, and Brian Dunbar left to work for orion I believe. Just a few thoughts.
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U812,
Commendable thoughts on the location in OH. Although, we actually have done extensive research in this process as we have demographic studies showing the greatest pool of people for what we want to do would be in the Pittsburgh area. However, with actual "R/C Racers", included within the quad-state areas, Washington PA is the epicenter and basically the easiest to travel to. (Especially with the 2 interstates intersecting coming from North, South, East and West. Of course, we have CAD Plans to build an R/C Facility; the Washington Mall is an excellent choice for the immediate future to house the indoor racetracks that will be up and running before the end of the summer. With that said, we hope to have all the kinks of building two indoor tracks worked out before the cooler weather hits, and will provide a great environment to enjoy some racing.
The on-road track footprint will be within a 10,000 SF area, which will include pit space. Additional pit space will be directly next to our store.
The off-road track/pits will be built inside a space that is just shy of 10,000 SF. However, this space will be divided in half because it is on two floors. This will work out nicely because we can utilize the ground floor for the dirt track as it has cinder block walls and cement floor. (actual dimensions to follow at a later date) Just up-stairs there is the same footprint for pit space giving plenty of room. We have thought about lockers for this area, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it.
We will be posting track design concepts in the near future on our website.
Thanks for the questions! Keep em' coming.
Mike
Commendable thoughts on the location in OH. Although, we actually have done extensive research in this process as we have demographic studies showing the greatest pool of people for what we want to do would be in the Pittsburgh area. However, with actual "R/C Racers", included within the quad-state areas, Washington PA is the epicenter and basically the easiest to travel to. (Especially with the 2 interstates intersecting coming from North, South, East and West. Of course, we have CAD Plans to build an R/C Facility; the Washington Mall is an excellent choice for the immediate future to house the indoor racetracks that will be up and running before the end of the summer. With that said, we hope to have all the kinks of building two indoor tracks worked out before the cooler weather hits, and will provide a great environment to enjoy some racing.
The on-road track footprint will be within a 10,000 SF area, which will include pit space. Additional pit space will be directly next to our store.
The off-road track/pits will be built inside a space that is just shy of 10,000 SF. However, this space will be divided in half because it is on two floors. This will work out nicely because we can utilize the ground floor for the dirt track as it has cinder block walls and cement floor. (actual dimensions to follow at a later date) Just up-stairs there is the same footprint for pit space giving plenty of room. We have thought about lockers for this area, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it.
We will be posting track design concepts in the near future on our website.
Thanks for the questions! Keep em' coming.
Mike
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1,395 Posts
SCH has around 28k SF of total space which close to 19k of that is specifically for track usage. I am sure if you read the first few posts in this thread you can figure out what is going on, or you can go to www.steelcityhobbies.com for more detailed information. Also, a picture is worth a 1000 words so check them out while you are on the website.
We are not planning any indoor nitro for this coming winter season at this location. But that would be awesome and is our goal for the future... ...
I don't believe there is a basement in the mall... (unless you are speaking of the old Giant Eagle which is "low") ...but we have an awesome space for the dirt off-road track that will be accessible only from the outside. This is a plus because we can then operate when the mall is closed, if need be.
I would also suggest stopping by the mall again when the store opens and we can show ya around!
:thumbsup:
We are not planning any indoor nitro for this coming winter season at this location. But that would be awesome and is our goal for the future... ...
I don't believe there is a basement in the mall... (unless you are speaking of the old Giant Eagle which is "low") ...but we have an awesome space for the dirt off-road track that will be accessible only from the outside. This is a plus because we can then operate when the mall is closed, if need be.
I would also suggest stopping by the mall again when the store opens and we can show ya around!
:thumbsup:
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846 Posts
Mall Store is only part of it!!
Cowboy and RacerXAX, you should have stopped by and said "hi", since a number of people have already made the trip to see what's up. The store will also have the storeroom to the side of it as "extra" pit space, as well as a room for things such as a Mini-Z track, perhaps SLOT CAR TRACK, etc. The "off-road" track is actually attached to the mall- at the rear of the former Lang's department store. This (almost stand alone) structure has a loading dock, but also has "street level" access to the race room, 2 stairways leading to the second floor, and high (about 15 foot+) ceilings, which will allow for a nice-sized driver's stand; and, the best part of the structure is that BOTH FLOORs ARE HEATED AND AIR-CONDITIONED with a forced air system. When have you raced in A/C offroad?????
Also, just so everyone is on the SAME PAGE: River Junction WILL NOT BE CLOSING when this opens. It will remain open and attempt to run races through the summer on Saturdays, beginning this Saturday(doors at 2, races at 5PM) and every other Saturday following (every 2 weeks)- schedule on the on-road and oval threads. In time, it will be re-named Steel City Hobbies, and be a contributing member of the Steel City family of hobby shops in the tri-state area. And it will (hopefully) grow and offer a "Steel City" experience to racers from the northern PA and NE Ohio regions as it has done for the last 7+ years(racing) and 24 years as a local hobby shop- yes, really 24 years. Thanks for the questions! John @ RJ :wave:
Cowboy and RacerXAX, you should have stopped by and said "hi", since a number of people have already made the trip to see what's up. The store will also have the storeroom to the side of it as "extra" pit space, as well as a room for things such as a Mini-Z track, perhaps SLOT CAR TRACK, etc. The "off-road" track is actually attached to the mall- at the rear of the former Lang's department store. This (almost stand alone) structure has a loading dock, but also has "street level" access to the race room, 2 stairways leading to the second floor, and high (about 15 foot+) ceilings, which will allow for a nice-sized driver's stand; and, the best part of the structure is that BOTH FLOORs ARE HEATED AND AIR-CONDITIONED with a forced air system. When have you raced in A/C offroad?????
Also, just so everyone is on the SAME PAGE: River Junction WILL NOT BE CLOSING when this opens. It will remain open and attempt to run races through the summer on Saturdays, beginning this Saturday(doors at 2, races at 5PM) and every other Saturday following (every 2 weeks)- schedule on the on-road and oval threads. In time, it will be re-named Steel City Hobbies, and be a contributing member of the Steel City family of hobby shops in the tri-state area. And it will (hopefully) grow and offer a "Steel City" experience to racers from the northern PA and NE Ohio regions as it has done for the last 7+ years(racing) and 24 years as a local hobby shop- yes, really 24 years. Thanks for the questions! John @ RJ :wave:
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