NXG Youth Motorsports planning to buy site at Central State for new headquarters

A local motorsports not-for-profit plans to acquire more than two acres at the former Central State Hospital campus on the west side of Indianapolis with a goal of converting the property into its new headquarters.

NXG Youth Motorsports Inc., which focuses on helping children and teens learn about the motorsports industry through karting, classes and other programs, plans to sign an option agreement with the Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development for the 2.2-acre former State Highway Garage complex at 50 N. Tibbs Ave.

The option agreement—which is set to be considered by the Metropolitan Development Commission on Wednesday afternoon—would allow the organization to begin setting firm plans for its new campus. NXG founder Rod Reid said he expects full development of the campus to cost $15 million to $20 million.

Reid said NXG, which is short for nexgeneracers, first put in a bid tied to a request for proposals for another property on the campus after the city issued  several RFPs in 2022. Instead, city officials approached him about the four-building State Highway site. At that time, he was considering growth for NXG on a much smaller basis.

“But when I started thinking about it, I thought ‘Wow, it would be really cool to create what [could be] the first of its kind in the country—a motorsports campus for youth,’” he said.

A new headquarters would mark a major expansion for NXG, which typically serves about 250 children per year, by nearly tripling that figure, to 700. It would also mean more employees to accommodate increased class sizes and programming opportunities. NXG currently has 17 employees, including four full-time. Reid said he expects to employ 28 people or more people, most of them part time, after the move.

Early concepts for the project call for the rehabilitation of up to four buildings totaling about 24,000 square feet, some of which date to the 1930s and are considered historically significant. The organization’s offices are currently housed in about 1,200 square feet at 1302 N. Illinois St.

The project would build on the programs Reid and late NXG co-founder Charles Wilson have built since the organization’s founding in 2006, particularly the use of karting to teach science, technology, engineering and math—or STEM—and give aspiring race car industry professionals an opportunity to learn the fundamental skills necessary for a career in the field.

Reid said he expects the new space would also give NXG an opportunity to broaden its programming, with the addition of skills like remote-control car races, drone soccer and engine building. The campus would also offer a computer lab and an area to teach youth how to detail cars.

“I really think this decision will include, truly, an expansion of our programming and create an opportunity, not only for the kids we serve broadly throughout the city, but especially or the west side,” he said. “We can be a hub for those kids and those families. You always hear about the third place—somewhere else they could go to besides school and home—and have it feel like it belongs to them. We can do that here.”

The main building for the new campus would be the closest to Tibbs Avenue, separated by a row of parking. It would contain new offices for NXG, along with spaces for remote-control cars and racing-simulation machines.

Another building would be home to classroom and detailing space for the program, while yet another would be used to teach participants about building engines and working with different components for race cars. The fourth building would house the computer and arts lab.

Reid also hopes to create a competition plaza at the center of the campus consisting of two tracks, which would be used for remote-control car races and drone soccer.

NXG would still take its full-sized karts to various race tracks for in-car lessons, as Central State would not be able to accommodate those lessons. The program uses space at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, along with smaller tracks in Lafayette and Whiteland for in-car lessons for its drivers, he said.

It’s likely NXG will require a capital campaign to raise funds for the headquarters effort, a process Reid said he expects will take a year.

“This is new territory for NXG—we raise funds all the time, but not to the degree that we’d need  to for something like this,” he said. “But we’ll go through the formal design phase once the city has said yes to providing an option for us to buy the property, and we exercise that option.”