RACINE - The recession has apparently killed a 10-year-old local business, Racine Motor Sports.

One year ago the owner, Scott Darville, was on the verge of a large business expansion. He had planned to build a $2 million regional Honda dealership on the county's west end and move his business there, from 2005 Lathrop Ave.

Today, his Racine store is closed, but there is no new Honda dealership.

Darville could not immediately be reached for comment, but his message on the phone for Racine Motor Sports begins, "Unfortunately, due to the economic situation, I have been forced to close Racine Motor Sports."

Last July Darville was going through the municipal approvals he needed for the new Honda dealership. He planned to buy about seven acres in Yorkville, slightly southwest of the intersection of highways 20 and 45.

There he planned to build the new Honda dealership with sales and repair of motorcycles, recreational vehicles and power equipment. The project would have included a main 18,000-square-foot building and a 6,000-square-foot storage building.

He hoped to open that dealership this spring, which he said would have sold all Honda vehicles except cars - including motorcycles, scooters, watercraft, all-terrain vehicles and residential lawn mowers and snowblowers.

The project, Darville said, would have allowed him to increase his staff size from about 12 people last summer to 18-20.

But he did not go forward with it and, one year later, the business is gone.