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Microcap & Penny Stocks : BAAT - world records for electric vehicles with zinc-air -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: shashyazhi who wrote (3265)	4/4/1998 2:59:00 PM
From: shashyazhi	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6464

BAT International will move in next five weeks: By Ben Sullivan, Daily News BURBANK -- The meter is ticking for CalStart. The public-private consortium created to jump-start Southern California's advanced transportation industry is hurriedly searching for a new home, as its current lease expires next month. The 6-year-old organization and the 25 or so partner companies at its Burbank technology incubator will be allowed to stay until August, according to Ken Philbrick, executive vice president at Baltimore-based LMC Properties Inc., the real estate subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corp. Since 1992, CalStart has leased for $1 per year about 150,000 square feet of space from Lockheed Martin and predecessor Lockheed Corp. on two floors of a defunct airplane manufacturing plant. Lockheed Martin plans to demolish all the buildings at the 35-acre site, clean up any environmental damage caused by its 60 years of use, and then sell the property, Philbrick said. "This should not be news for (CalStart)," Philbrick said. "I notified them last fall they'd have to relocate. I said, you've got to get out." Thanks in part to a boom in the multimedia and animation industries, which feed off the massive Burbank operations of Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., commercial property in the city is in high demand and short supply. Real estate analysts say once Lockheed cleans up the site and gets appropriate zoning from the city, it should have little trouble selling it to developers. Where CalStart will go is far less certain. CalStart spokesman Bill Van Amburg said the organization is actively looking for a new site and being recruited by communities. It will likely be two months before a decision is made. "The deadline is fairly soon, so we've also been looking into some interim solutions," Van Amburg said. "We'd love to have had a little more time, but we don't foresee this as a huge problem." Van Amburg said CalStart has been approached by communities stretching from Ventura County to the South Bay and has received lease offers "nearly as attractive as what we have with Lockheed." Still, he said, "It'll be tough to beat having the Burbank Airport right across the street and a Metrolink stop outside your door," all for $1 per year. Van Amburg said given a choice, CalStart would prefer to stay near its existing site, and added that San Fernando Valley locations such as the Van Nuys Airport are being examined. Bob Tague, community development director for the city of Burbank, said that while the city would like to keep CalStart, the prospects are dim. "They need quite a lot of space and a very, very, very cheap price," he said. "Even if they could pay the going rate, finding that much space in Burbank is going to be hard." If no permanent site is found in time, CalStart and its incubator companies may move into offices somewhere temporarily and put their equipment in storage until a permanent solution is found, Van Amburg said. Only about half of the 25 companies in CalStart's technology incubator are expected to make the move. "I don't think we're going to have tell anybody, No you can't come with us," Van Amberg said. "A lot of companies were just getting ready to move out on their own anyway." But once set up in new digs, CalStart will be more selective about the companies it chooses to sponsor, he said. "We threw open the doors before" in an effort to give the local transportation industry a boost, Van Amburg said. "We'll be looking with a little bit finer eye this time." In addition to providing office and manufacturing space, CalStart helps incubator companies find funding, connect with potential business partners and swap technology with related firms. The organization is funded through government grants, private donations and membership fees from partner companies, including car makers and utility companies. One incubator company that has already said it will not remain with CalStart -- at least not entirely -- is BAT International, which announced Friday it will relocate to El Cajon, near San Diego, to be closer to a maquiladora factory it is building in Mexico to build electric vehicles. BAT Chief Executive Officer Joseph LaStella said his company has formed a partnership with World Transport Authority Inc. of El Cajon, Detech Corp. of Canada and Mexico's Environmental Process Advanced S.A. to build and sell a "clean world car" running on batteries that will match the acceleration and speed of vehicles powered by gasoline but that will sell for less. BAT will move its headquarters to El Cajon within five weeks but will leave behind two or three employees at its CalStart office indefinitely, LaStella said. BAT will market its electric cars in North and South America and expects to sell 1,000 a year, LaStella said. BAT gained national attention earlier this year when shares in the tiny automotive research and development firm rose from 8 cents to a peak of more than $3 on reports that the company had developed an internal combustion engine that could get 100 miles per gallon of fuel. The company is currently being investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and its share price has fallen back to the $1 range. BAT shares gained 5 cents Friday to close at 94 cents. Copyright 1998 Daily News Los Angeles Transmitted: 4/3/98 11:41 PM (biz5)