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The
following article was published on Feb. 20, 2002 Reading
Times.
By Jason Brudereck, Eagle/Times
A fuel-cell battery manufacturer might build a
38,000-square-foot plant on Morgantown Road, Albert R.
Boscov told City Council on Tuesday. The chairman of
Boscov's Inc. added that Mayor Joseph D. Eppihimer's dream
of building a hotel across from the Sovereign Center is
not dead. But for proposals such as these to continue to
develop in Reading, he said, council must approve a
proposal from Eppihimer's
administration to create two economic and neighborhood
development positions in the city community development
department. These initiatives and a plan to put an office
building in the 400 block of Penn Street are all proposed
for Reading's Keystone Opportunity Zones, in which
property owners don't have to pay state or local taxes
through 2013. Nan F. Balmer, community development
director, said the proposals would require council to
transfer some grants to the Greater Berks Development Fund
and make other approvals. The plant would be built by
Powerzinc Electric Inc., a California-based battery
manufacturer that focuses on Electric scooters used
primarily in China and Taiwan, according to the company's
Web site. The company must determine if the batteries can
be made at a competitive cost in Reading, Boscov said. The
plant would be built on land owned by Greater Berks next
to a Brentwood Industries facility that received $3.9
million in federal funding for expansion projects last
year in an opportunity zone. The plan to build the hotel
stalled last year after Harrisburg-area developer John O.
Vartan scaled it back. Also, city officials had questioned
if it would be wise to have another hotel so close to the
LIncoln Plaza Hotel & Conference Center at Fifth and
Washington streets. The city will pay almost $300,000
annually of the LIncoln's debt until the hotel makes a
profit because the LIncoln received about $6.45 million in
loans from the city's federal Community Development funds
before it opened in 1998. "The mayor still feels another
hotel is critical to bringing conventions to the Sovereign
Center," Boscov told council. Boscov said he and Eppihimer
plan to reopen meetings with Vartan. Eppihimer did not
attend the meeting Tuesday. Even if the hotel isn't built,
another company is interested in building a small office
building there, Boscov said. That property is now a
parking lot owned by the Reading Redevelopment Authority,
which would need to agree to transfer the land for
anything to be built there. For these and other projects
to move forward, council must support a reorganization of
Balmer's department, Boscov said. "It's impossible for her
staff to do it all," he said. The proposal could cost
$120,000 in annual salaries, or $32,000 more than the city
paid for two vacant positions that would be eliminated
under the proposal. Council President Vaughn D. Spencer
said council would support some sort of reorganization.
About
Powerzinc
Powerzinc
Electric, Inc. is a California-based Hi-Tech company. It
is dedicated to the research, development, manufacturing
and commercialization of advanced zinc-air fuel cells and
entire manufacture facilities, along with fuel cells
refuel service platform. Through years of R&D, Powerzinc
has achieved significant breakthroughs in zinc-air fuel
cell technology and developed the high power, large
energy, long-lasting, low cost and environment-friendly
power and energy source. Its innovative products - DQFC
series of zinc-air fuel cells with creative design and
process technology is a totally renewable energy for
electric vehicles and various other applications today.
About
Powerzinc Electric (Shanghai), Inc
In Shanghai, China,
Powerzinc has established a zinc-air fuel cell
manufacturing and service model plant to commercialize the
technology and its products. The plant is ready for
commercial-scale production. The Company has started
supplying DQFC series zinc-air fuel cells to manufacturers
of Electric Bicycles and Electric Scooters. In the near
future, the new series of DQFC zinc-air fuel cells for
Electric Buses, Defense and Security, Communication and
other applications will be available to the commercial
market soon to satisfy
the
real highly growing demand anywhere in the world.
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Powerzinc Electric, Inc.