ADESA Golden Gate Opens New Site in Tracy.

Business Editors & Automotive Writers

TRACY, Calif.--(AutomotiveWire)--Aug. 6, 2002

ADESA Corp., North America's fastest growing wholesale vehicle remarketing network, opened its doors to the new ADESA Golden Gate today. The new location in Tracy, Calif. is housed between Interstate 205 and 580, in the heart of the business triangle formed by the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento and the San Jose cities.

Located on 230 acres of property, the new ADESA Golden Gate will be managed by current general manager, Gary Mobley. The auction features 1,500 dealer parking spaces, 12 fully automated auction lanes and a state-of-the-art technology center that offers digital imaging and an assembly line format for condition reports. There is also a 300 plus vehicle check-in area with pre-inventory sorting capabilities, an indoor, fully equipped arbitration and diagnostic center, a 16 lift mechanical shop with 24 work stations and a full service car wash. ADESA Golden Gate will provide an indoor Automotive Finance Corp. (AFC) office with payment windows in the main building. ADESA Golden Gate will also offer storage for over 10,000 vehicles along with a full service body shop with three paint booths, three preparation booths and a metal holding area for 30 vehicles under one roof. The new reconditioning and detail facility housed on 65 acres has seven lanes, central vacuums, heated carpet cleaners and extractors and steam cleaning bays located inside the building. Both the body and reconditioning shops will have capabilities to handle heavy-duty trucks.

"ADESA Golden Gate is expanding to cater to the automotive industry," said Jim Hallett, chairman and CEO of ALLETE Automotive Services. "With increased space, a large selection of factory and fleet accounts and innovative technologies, ADESA Golden Gate is the largest undertaking by ADESA to provide an outstanding place for licensed vehicle dealers to purchase their inventories. We're proud to be the company to cater to automotive dealers' needs."

ADESA Golden Gate employs 400 full and part-time people. Weekly consignment and factory sales will take place Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with alternating factory and top line sales each week.

"Skilled workers, a strong sense of community spirit and outstanding choices for our customers allow ADESA Golden Gate to offer great benefits to the City of Tracy," said Kenny Osborn, regional vice president, western operations. "As a part of the Tracy community, ADESA Golden Gate hopes to contribute positively to a growing area of California."

Headquartered in Indianapolis, Ind., ADESA Corp. is a wholly owned subsidiary of ALLETE, Inc. (NYSE:ALE). Through its network of subsidiaries, ADESA operates 52 wholesale vehicle auctions and six heavy-duty commercial vehicle auctions strategically located across the United States and Canada. The ADESA network of companies operates several other related businesses in the vehicle remarketing industry including ADESA Impact total loss management (with 24 auction locations), ComSearch professional claim outsourcing services for the property and casualty insurance industry, Automotive Finance Corporation (AFC) dealer financing, Micro 21 dealer software, AutoVin inspection services, PAR North America remarketing services, and ADESA Importation Services (AIS). For further information on ADESA Corporation, call 1-800-923-3725 or go to www.adesa.com.

The statements contained in this release and statements that ALLETE may make orally in connection with this release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and investors are directed to the risks discussed in documents filed by ALLETE with the Securities and Exchange Commission.