Title	Heat hatches new space
Date:	2/27/2001
Author:	Laura Polland
Source:	Pacific Coast Business Times

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The Santa Barbara Technology Incubator will put its eggs into one basket this March with the renovation of a 26,000-square-foot space on Gutierrez Street in Santa Barbara. The new building will consolidate SBTi staff and its incubating companies, leaving additional space for short-term rental by local companies.

Formerly the home of a cell phone repair operation, the building at East Gutierrez and Laguna is undergoing reconstruction. Ladders strung with phone and Internet wires cross the high ceilings of the two large rooms, which are honeycombed into offices and workstations. SBTi staff offices line the front of the building, bordering conference rooms and a computer software testing room, while a kitchen in the back opens to patio seating adjoining the 90-space parking lot. A white flag with SBTi's purple egg emblem will flutter above.

The building will replace SBTi's current headquarters on Nopal Street and the space a few blocks away on Edison that has been home to a portfolio company. The whole flock will move in March, including portfolio companies Ants.com, Epidemic Networks, New Entrepreneur Venture Fund and Virtual Bandwidth, along with tenants US Interns and Vistera.

"We want enough space to incubate all the companies we'll have over the next few years," said Dennis Cagan, chairman and CEO of SBTi. In the meantime, the empty area within the office will offer alternatives to other tech companies planning their long-term space needs.

The incubator's sister company, Santa Barbara Technology Properties, was created last year to offer flexible alternatives to growing tech companies. Standard commercial leases of one year or more force growing companies to chose between a small space or the larger space they might need by the end of the lease. If they outgrow the space, they are faced with overcrowding or finding an additional location. "That's why you see so many companies with space all around town," Cagan said.

SBTP's activities will now be concentrated in the new office, where the numerous unused workstations and offices will be rented for one-, three- or six-month periods. The tenants will have access to the conference rooms and other common space, as well as the phone and network systems, which have been configured for use by discrete individual companies.

The short-term leases require no deposits or personal guarantees, but the rent will be paid partly by an equity share in the tenants' companies.