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If efforts to relocate the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame to Greensboro were a race, local organizers would describe the competition this way: they started late and have been moving up fast.

“We came from out of nowhere,” said Neil Belenky, head of a task force working to bring the hall of fame here. “We made the next cut. We’re thrilled about it.”

Officials at the hall announced about a year ago that they wanted to leave their long-time home in Somerville, N.J., a bedroom community of New York City, after their original home was sold for redevelopment.

Eleven cities across the country, including Greensboro, provided what the leader of the search effort described as “substantive” offers.

“They are in the top four,” Bill Brunner, a past president of the hall, said of Greensboro. “We are certainly excited about Greensboro. They did a wonderful job of putting this together.”

Belenky said the effort didn’t kick off until November.

So far, local organizers have identified three potential sites for the hall, all of them downtown: the Depot, the city’s transportation hub on East Washington Street; a vacant property at 532-534 S. Elm St.; and the old Cadillac dealership at 304 E. Market St.

“All of us would prefer seeing it downtown,” Belenky said. “That’s our first choice.”

Neither Belenky nor Brunner could say how many visitors the hall might attract to Greensboro annually or what its economic impact might be to the city.

But landing the hall would require an unspecified outlay from the winning city.

Belenky figures it would take $150,000 to $200,000 a year for three or four years for the hall to become self-sustaining. He said that money could come from national corporations, memberships or local resources.

Belenky said locating the hall here would benefit Greensboro in several ways. It would label the city as a healthy-living community, attract cycling events; and provide research opportunities and partnerships for local colleges and universities.

“The one misconception is that this is about a museum,” Belenky said. “While there is a major collection, there is an opportunity to create (a cycling-related) community outside the hall of fame.”

Brunner, who stopped short of calling Greensboro a finalist, said the hall of fame preserves the history of cycling and recognizes those who have had a positive impact on the sport. The organization also collects historical artifacts for research and public display.

Brunner said the hall should not be confused with a venue such as the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.

“We think it is important that people will come to the community for other things and make us a part of that trip,” Brunner said. “We are not going to be Cooperstown.”

Brunner and Belenky said the proposed Downtown Greenway, which would provide space for walking, running and bicycling in the center city; and the International Civil Rights Center and Museum, which could open downtown next year, would draw visitors to the hall of fame.

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson@news-record.com