93-03-17 MicroAire Surgical Instruments

RELEASE ON  RECEIPT

                                               Contact: Tom Doran
     CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., March 16 -- MicroAire Surgical
Instruments plans to move its operations to Charlottesville in
several phases starting as early as May, the company announced
Tuesday to employees at its headquarters in Valencia, Cal.
     Company officers advised University of Virginia officials
they will hire about 70 people locally over the next year to work
at a new facility that will be the first tenant of U.Va.'s
research-oriented North Fork Business Park. About 40 key
employees will move here from the company's present facility.
     While its new 45,000-square-foot, $2.6 million facility is
under construction MicroAire will lease space in a building in
Crozet owned by Acme Design Technology, a company statement said.
     MicroAire is a producer and supplier of precision
instruments and powered tools for the medical profession,
including saws, drills and other surgical devices. It produces
the world's widest selection of powered surgical tools.
     Details of the arrangements for space in the research park
are still being worked out, according to company and U.Va.
officials, but an agreement in principle has been reached.
     "We're excited to welcome MicroAire, which is precisely the
kind of industry we want," said U.Va. Rector Hovey S. Dabney.
"It's clean, it will provide good jobs to local people and it
will interact with the physicians and other researchers at our
Health Sciences Center to the benefit of the University and the
company.
     "When the University established its research parks this was
the quality of tenant we had in mind as a partner and a member of
our community. Congratulations are in order to the University of
Virginia Foundation and all who worked to help bring MicroAire
here."
     MicroAire officials said the potential for collaboration
with U.Va. in the research, development and testing of new
medical technologies was a major factor in the decision to move
here. They also cited as pluses the community's location, close
to the Washington headquarters of federal agencies such as the
Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health.
     Founded in 1974 in San Fernando, Cal. as American Safety
Products, the company was acquired by The Marmon Group four years
later and its name was changed to MicroAire. The Marmon Group is
an international association of more than 60 autonomous member
firms. In 1988 the rapidly expanding company moved into larger
quarters in Valencia. Its new local facility is designed to allow
for continued growth.
     According to the company's statement, the majority of those
to be hired locally will be instrument assemblers, clean room
product managers, quality inspectors, and personnel in shipping
and receiving and customer service. Some engineers, technicians,
accounting, purchasing, administrative and marketing personnel
will also be recruited, it noted.
     U.Va. is currently developing two research parks:
     North Fork Business Park is a 525-acre tract north of the
city near the Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport. It is designed
to provide space for research, business and light industry in an
environmentally safe setting.
     Fontaine Research Park is a 53-acre tract southeast of the
city, off Fontaine Avenue. Its first tenant, the U.Va. Health
Services Foundation, is scheduled to open this summer and the
park's potential as a center for some types of medical research
and patient care is under study.
                              # # #
Charlotte A. Buttner, Program Support Technician, Health Sciences
Center News Office, McKim Hall Room 3116, #429, Charlottesville,
Va.  22908, 804-924-5679, cab2j@virginia.edu,
compuserve 72203,1033


[Submitted by: unknown (cab2j@dmt03.mcc.virginia.edu)
               17 Mar 94 16:22:11 EST]