Port San Antonio - DeLorean Motor Co. Tower

[babysal]

Port San Antonio CEO unveils next-gen expansion plan to include DeLorean HQ tower

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By W. Scott Bailey – Senior Reporter, San Antonio Business Journal
Jun 14, 2022

The office structure could be one of the tallest south of downtown and would anchor a reimagined central campus

Port San Antonio is making a futuristic pivot that will reshape the look and feel of the former military base, and one of the planned anchors is a ground-up office tower that will house DeLorean Motor Co.’s new corporate headquarters.

The new tower could span as much as 300,000 square feet and would rise above the center of the campus near the port’s entrance. While it would house a DeLorean workforce that could reach 450 employees, it could accommodate other companies as well.

“We want it to be tall so that people can see it see it from the highway, see it from downtown. We want it to be something that really attracts people,” Port San Antonio President and CEO Jim Perschbach said.

The strategy could reshape the city’s economic development landscape and draw more new investment south of downtown. Port officials are not wasting any time putting the planning in place for the DeLorean tower. Perschbach said construction on that building needs to begin before the end of the year.

The new office tower would anchor a reimagined central campus at Port San Antonio.

“We need that building up and operational by the first quarter of 2025,” he said, noting that the intent is to involve as many local companies as possible in the design and construction of the tower.

Despite the impact the pandemic has had on the office market, Port San Antonio officials insist there is a heightened demand for space on its campus. That’s led to bidding wars and disappointment among prospective tenants who’ve come up short. Perschbach expects the port could fill up a 300,000-square-foot building pretty quickly.

“It will hopefully give us a little bit of a cushion so that we're not out of space even before we finish the building,” he said.

At the planned size, the tower could be one of the tallest office buildings south of downtown.

“We were designed to be hard to get to,” Perschbach said. “We want people to recognize that we're here.”

It’s a monumental pivot for a campus still filled with military-era buildings that have done little to promote the kind of new-era change Port San Antonio is pursuing. The tower is the centerpiece of a broader plan that includes more new structures, greater connectivity among organizations and employees, and a mobility strategy that embraces new technology.

“What we want is for architects to help us design something that becomes iconic, a symbol of this campus,” Perschbach said, adding that the implementation of that strategy could ultimately include a new name for the Southwest Side campus.

[theOGalexd]

I'm all any growth, but can't help but wonder how much this sort of development would have added to downtown. Especially between a Delorean HQ and the new concert venue/arena.

[texastarkus]

delete

[texastarkus]

No offence to anyone out there but to me this seems like some sorta joke. At the same time this project was announced a trailer for another movie sequel was announced; Back To The Future 4 complete with trailer. I'm beginning to feel someone is having a little fun with us.

[jaga185]

Originally Posted by theOGalexd

I'm all any growth, but can't help but wonder how much this sort of development would have added to downtown. Especially between a Delorean HQ and the new concert venue/arena.

THIS omg

[ajarreguin3]

Originally Posted by theOGalexd

I'm all any growth, but can't help but wonder how much this sort of development would have added to downtown. Especially between a Delorean HQ and the new concert venue/arena.

I really hate the fact that San Antonio is not putting more emphasis in the downtown area. More so, this is a missed opportunity.

[JACKinBeantown]

Wow! This would be awesome. It would create a vital area where people in that part of town can travel less distance (in their cars) to get to an urban destination.

[Tornado]

So great to see Brooks/Port SA continue to evolve and grow. Looking forward to watching more development happen.

[texastarkus]

Is this what we get to look forward to and do we really want it?

Man Claiming To Be John DeLorean’s Long Lost Son Says The Taliban Wants To Hire Him To Supply Knock-Off DeLoreans

Elizabeth Puckett
Sat, June 18, 2022, 4:30 PM


Ty DeLorean says his cars are attracting those who want to conquer the Afghanistan landscape.
The story of Ty DeLorean is an odd one. We first heard his name when learning that a man claiming to be John DeLorean’s long lost son, although we can’t confirm this anywhere, is being sued for for trademark infringement by a Texas company that owns the rights to the DeLorean Motor Company brand. Now he’s claiming the three wheel knock off cars that resemble the time machine cars are being looked at by none other than the Taliban.

https://www.motorious.com/articles/all/man-claiming-to-be-john-deloreans-long-lost-son-says-the-taliban-wants-to-hire-him-to-supply-knock-off-deloreans/

[Rynetwo]

Originally Posted by texastarkus

Is this what we get to look forward to and do we really want it?

Man Claiming To Be John DeLorean’s Long Lost Son Says The Taliban Wants To Hire Him To Supply Knock-Off DeLoreans

Elizabeth Puckett
Sat, June 18, 2022, 4:30 PM


Ty DeLorean says his cars are attracting those who want to conquer the Afghanistan landscape.
The story of Ty DeLorean is an odd one. We first heard his name when learning that a man claiming to be John DeLorean’s long lost son, although we can’t confirm this anywhere, is being sued for for trademark infringement by a Texas company that owns the rights to the DeLorean Motor Company brand. Now he’s claiming the three wheel knock off cars that resemble the time machine cars are being looked at by none other than the Taliban.

https://www.motorious.com/articles/all/man-claiming-to-be-john-deloreans-long-lost-son-says-the-taliban-wants-to-hire-him-to-supply-knock-off-deloreans/

Not sure what this post is about or why it is here. It is a looney that has nothing to do with this project or sponsoring company.

[kingkirbythe....]

It's a crazy story about the guy who started the car company's long lost son. It so belongs here. It's fun.










Reviews
Back to the Future
Roger Ebert July 03, 1985

One of the things all teenagers believe is that their parents were never teenagers. Their parents were, perhaps, children once. They are undeniably adults now. But how could they have ever been teenagers, and yet not understand their own children? This view is actually rather optimistic, since it assumes that you can learn something about teenagers by being one. But "Back to the Future" is even more hopeful: It argues that you can travel back in time to the years when your parents were teenagers and straighten them out right at the moment when they need help the most.

The movie begins in the present, with a teenager named Marty (Michael J. Fox, from TV's "Family Ties"). His parents (let's face it) are hopeless nerds. Dad tells corny jokes and Mom guzzles vodka in the kitchen and the evening meal is like feeding time at the fun house. All that keeps Marty sane is his friendship with the nutty Dr. Brown (Christopher Lloyd), an inventor with glowing eyes and hair like a fright wig. Brown believes he has discovered the secret of time travel, and one night in the deserted parking lot of the local shopping mall, he demonstrates his invention. In the long history of time travel movies, there has never been a time machine quite like Brown's, which resembles nothing so much as a customized De Lorean.

The gadget works, and then, after a series of surprises, Marty finds himself transported back 30 years in time, to the days when the shopping mall was a farmer's field (there's a nice gag when the farmer thinks the De Lorean, with its gull-wing doors, is a flying saucer). Marty wanders into town, still wearing his 1985 clothing, and the townsfolk look at his goose down jacket and ask him why he's wearing a life preserver.

One of the running gags in "Back to the Future" is the way the town has changed in 30 years (for example, the porno house of 1985 was playing a Ronald Reagan movie in 1955). But a lot of the differences run more deeply than that, as Marty discovers when he sits down at a lunch counter next to his Dad - who is, of course, a teenager himself. Because the movie has so much fun with the paradoxes and predicaments of a kid meeting his own parents, I won't discuss the plot in any detail. I won't even get into the horrifying moment when Marty discovers his mother "has the hots" for him. The movie's surprises are one of its great pleasures.

"Back to the Future" was directed by Robert ("Romancing the Stone") Zemeckis, who shows not only a fine comic touch but also some of the lighthearted humanism of a Frank Capra. The movie, in fact, resembles Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life" more than other, conventional time-travel movies. It's about a character who begins with one view of his life and reality, and is allowed, through magical intervention, to discover another. Steven Spielberg was the executive producer, and this is the second of the summer's three Spielberg productions (it follows "The Goonies" and precedes "Explorers"), and maybe it's time to wonder if Spielberg is emulating the great studio chiefs of the past, who specialized in matching the right director with the right project. This time, the match works with charm, brains and a lot of laughter.







SOUNDS GREAT! I THINK I'LL SEE!

[kingkirbythe....]

DeLorean CEO talks about automaker’s future in San Antonio — and the challenges it sees ahead

https://www.expressnews.com/business...e-17254122.php

He’s excited, too, about what’s happening at the Port, where the reborn automaker is establishing its global headquarters to develop and market electric vehicles under the brand made famous by the “Back to the Future” films of the 1980s.

And in about a year, he said, electric-powered DeLorean roadsters are likely to start being spotted on San Antonio streets.

“I think you’ll start seeing something late next year right around here, the prototypes, testing validation cars,” de Vries said, “mainly at Southwest Research Institute.”

[The Model]

Really hope this happens! I do wish it was downtown as well. Back in the day, when Toyota announced they were coming to San Antonio, I was a young guy just in college and I was like please build the Toyota plant at Kelly! I thought that was an awesome location for Toyota, so it is good to see another car maker seeing a great location with potential that is still close to downtown. It be cool to see this area develop into another Pearl area.

[babysal]

By W. Scott Bailey – Senior Reporter, San Antonio Business Journal
Jun 27, 2022

The automaker's ambitious Alamo City buildup is tied to the port's next-gen expansion strategy

DeLorean Motor Co. planted its new corporate headquarters flag at Port San Antonio in April with a handful of hires and some temporary office space, but the new automaker has ambitious plans for the Alamo City and its ramp up could draw the attention of other companies interested in establishing a presence here.
DeLorean is launching with a modest crew and could have roughly 40 to 50 people working out of its temporary headquarters space by the end of the year.
“We've hired our first dozen people now,” DeLorean CEO Joost de Vries said. Some of the workforce who will ultimately call San Antonio home, including employees from the engineering side currently in places like California, Florida and Michigan, for example, are waiting on the school year to end before making the move.

Among those making the move are DeLorean’s head of engineering, chief operating officer and chief marketing officer. But the company is already beginning to add to its San Antonio workforce with local hires in multiple departments, including human resources and accounting. De Vries said the company’s corporate headcount could hit 200 by the end of 2023. “By the following year, you double that,” de Vries said. “The group is growing fast.” DeLorean was interested in San Antonio in part because it has a deep talent pool and a strong local academic ecosystem. But it’s somewhat constrained in its current space, which de Vries said can comfortably accommodate about 40 personnel.

Once finish-out work is completed on an existing building nearby, DeLorean expects to make another temporary move, potentially before the end of the year.
The bigger move is part of Port San Antonio’s next-gen expansion plan that includes the construction of a new office tower spanning some 300,000 square feet. The structure would provide a permanent home for DeLorean and allow the company to get its corporate headcount to 450 employees. Port San Antonio CEO Jim Perschbach wants to see work on the new tower begin before the end of the year. “We need that building up and operational by the first quarter of 2025,” he said.
The commitments by DeLorean and Port San Antonio could fuel more investment in San Antonio — and potentially spur more headquarters opportunities.
“What I'm seeing and what I'm hearing is that San Antonio is a hidden pearl,” de Vries said. “It is more livable than Houston. It is definitely more livable than Austin.”

[SAguy]

From today's SABJ:

One of the anchors of that plan is a planned office tower that would stretch high enough into the sky that it’s visible from afar , an intentional tease of what’s to come. Perschbach said work on that roughly 300,000-square-foot structure could begin before the end of the year, and one of its primary tenants will be DeLorean Motor Co., which is planting its new headquarters flag in the Alamo City.

[kingkirbythe....]

Suit accuses founders of San Antonio-based DeLorean electric car firm of intellectual property theft

The lawsuit comes only months after the startup was awarded nearly $1.1 million in city and county subsides.

https://www.sacurrent.com/news/suit-...theft-29585219

Mere months after the city and county coughed up nearly $1.1 million in incentives to attract the revamped DeLorean Motor Co., the venture has been hit with a lawsuit alleging its founders engaged in intellectual property theft.

A suit filed in federal court in Houston accuses four former employees of California-based electric car maker Karma Automotive of stealing design and engineering information to launch their venture resurrecting the '80s-era DeLorean sports car as an electric vehicle.

[kingkirbythe....]

San Antonio's DeLorean Motor Co., now facing lawsuit, criticism, unveils prototype at California show

Executives of the electric vehicle venture are now facing a lawsuit from a former employer alleging them of property theft.

https://www.sacurrent.com/news/san-a...-show-29640065

San Antonio-based DeLorean Motor Co. unveiled a prototype of its Alpha 5 electric vehicle during a Thursday ceremony at the Pebble Beach Concourse d'Elegance auto show in Monterrey, Calif, according to media reports.

The exhibition of the Alpha 5 comes a week after the revamped DeLorean Motor Co. and its founders, including CEO Joost de Vries, were named as defendants in a lawsuit filed by Karma Automotive, a rival electric vehicle firm.

The suit alleges de Vries and other former Karma employees launched their redesign of the iconic '80s sports car featured the Back to the Future film franchise with intellectual property stolen from Karma.

In a statement to the Express-News, de Vries called Karma's accusations "baseless."

The Alpha 5's unveiling also comes as a family member of the original DeLorean DMC-12 creator, John DeLorean, criticized the San Antonio startup and appeared to tease a separate, family-associated relaunch.

Amid great fanfare, the fire-orange Alpha 5 was driven onto a showcase platform with dramatic music playing in the background last week in Monterrey. Company execs say the new coupe will sell for $90,000-$190,000 and have a driving range of around 300 miles, reaching speeds of 155 mph, the Express-News reports.

De Vries previously said he expects the Alpha 5 to hit the market in 2024, with plans to contract a manufacturing plant in Ontario, Canada, to produce a "low volume" of the cars, according to the daily.

San Antonio and Bexar County doled some $1.1 million in grants and tax incentives to the DeLorean Motor Co. earlier this year. In exchange, the venture agreed to set up its headquarters in Alamo City, promising to hit the lofty goal of creating 450 jobs with an average salary of $145,600 by the end of 2026.

The unveiling also comes days after Kat DeLorean Seymour, John DeLorean's daughter, blasted the San Antonio company and hinted that she had her own relaunch in the pipeline.

In a June Instagram post, DeLorean Seymour made clear that the new DeLorean Motor Co. isn't associated with the DeLorean family and asked the EV automaker to "stop lying and stop speaking about John now, he despised you."

On Wednesday, DeLorean Seymour also appeared to hint that she and others related to John DeLorean are working on their own version of the distinctive '80s car.

"Join us as we build a car sent from an Angel to change the world," DeLorean Seymour wrote in a Wednesday Instagram post.

DeLorean Seymour's Instagram post was accompanied by a link to a Youtube video featuring conceptualize art of a "Model JZD" DeLorean, which the clip said is coming sometime in 2023.

The YouTube video notes that the clip is "NOT associated with DeLorean Motor Company or DeLorean Reimagined."

[Restless One]

Well, it is a pretty car. Confusing situation, but a pretty nice car.

[kingkirbythe....]

Taylor: The competition over the DeLorean’s legacy heats up

https://www.expressnews.com/sa-inc/a...y-17393564.php

August was a big month for the DeLorean car company’s legacy. Aug. 18 was a particularly big day on both ends of the country. On the West Coast, San Antonio-based DeLorean Motors Reimagined hosted a public launch of its Alpha5 concept car at the 70th Annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance auto show.

Also that day, in New Hampshire, Kathryn DeLorean, daughter of original founder John Z. DeLorean, proposed a separate and unaffiliated addition to the DeLorean lore. She is behind the DeLorean Legacy Project, an educational engineering center with plans to build a signature tribute car, the Model JZD, initially designed in 2020.

The former is a for-profit business, while the latter is a historical tribute and nonprofit educational project. Both are attempts to define what this car brand meant in the past and will mean in the future. What is DeLorean’s legacy?

[kingkirbythe....]

Intellectual property lawsuit clouds San Antonio-based DeLorean startup’s plans

https://www.expressnews.com/business...n-17401159.php

Six months after DeLorean Motors Reimagined — the startup seeking to produce a new incarnation of the 1980s sports car — surprised San Antonians by announcing plans to put its headquarters here, a lawsuit filed against the company has thrown a potential wrench in its gears.

In the lawsuit filed this month, Karma Automotive, an Irvine, Calif.-based and Chinese-owned electric auto maker, alleges that the new company was created based on intellectual property that its founders stole while working for Karma.

While the plaintiff’s claims could be difficult to prove, the timing of DeLorean Motors’ founding in relation to its lead executives’ tenure at Karma could appear suspicious enough to compel attempts to negotiate a settlement, a St. Mary’s University School of Law professor suggests.

And that’s not the only red flag surrounding this DeLorean entity, which is intertwined with a similarly named Humble-based company — DeLorean Motor Co. — founded about 30 years ago with its own history of being sued over intellectual property claims. The Humble-based company’s claim to the DeLorean name is key to the two companies’ joint venture.

The San Antonio company has a cloudy background to go along with a somewhat muddled identify. It hasn’t shared any information about its investors or how much money it’s working with, even as city and county officials collectively granted the company more than $1 million in incentives and tax breaks. And while DeLorean Motors Reimagined is incorporated separately from DeLorean Motor Co., the former generally identifies itself as the latter, such as on its website and in a Super Bowl ad that accompanied its launch.