Editor’s note: The following story is one of a series of articles compiled by The News Courier staff about the news that shaped Athens and Limestone County in 2016. Additional articles will be published this week as the year draws to a close.

Unity. Teamwork. Regional cooperation. Those were the sentiments most often heard this year at each groundbreaking, ribbon-cutting and economic announcement held in Limestone County.

Those words were uttered by nearly everyone present at the June 15 announcement that a 1,252 acres of Limestone County farmland had received “megasite” certification from the Tennessee Valley Authority. Officials hope to lure a large-scale manufacturing facility to the shovel-ready site, which was previously considered by Volkswagen.

“We continue to be excited about our success in economic development and we’ll continue the teamwork aspect and keep on keeping on,” Limestone Commission Chairman Mark Yarbrough said after the announcement.

Regional and state officials also credited the spirit of teamwork with Limestone’s success the previous year. In April, Gov. Robert Bentley announced Limestone led the state in 2015 with 2,618 new and announced jobs.

The same spirit of cooperation kept the momentum moving through the first half of 2016 as new announcements were made. And with ribbon-cutting ceremonies on Asahi Kasei and Polaris, state and local officials were able to see the end result of their teamwork.

Hill described 2016 as an “acceptable year” in terms of economic development. He explained there tends to be reduced economic development activity during a presidential election year because companies don’t want to make a decision until a winner has been decided.

“With people being hired and going to work at Polaris and Shape, there was a sense of continuity,” he said. “GE Aviation is staring to hire and their building should be ready in the spring. Those are all good things.”

The News Courier looked back over the previous year and picked the following economic development stories as the most important in another banner year:

Woodbridge Group

What Hill regarded as the largest economic development of 2016 has yet to be formally announced by company officials. The Woodbridge Group, which is based in Mississauga, Canada, plans to hire about 160 employees for a $17 million manufacturing facility in the SouthPoint Business Park.

The park is at the northeast corner of the junction of interstates 65 and 565 in Huntsville-annexed Limestone County.

In March, the Limestone County Water & Sewer Authority agreed to forgive impact fees for the project at Hill’s request. He told the utility the anticipated water demand for the Woodbridge would be 85,000 gallons per month, which equates to an impact fee of $14,166.66.

The company manufactures urethane and particle foam for the automotive, commercial, military and recreational vehicle industries. Hill said the company closed on the building in January, but has been renovating the space to meet its needs.

Shape Corp site dedicated

State and local officials gathered March 4 to dedicate the site of the future Shape Corp facility. The $24 million, 100,000-square-foot vehicle bumper reinforcement manufacturing site is being constructed in the Breeding Industrial Complex off Roy Long Road. It is expected to provide up to 170 jobs when fully staffed.

In October 2015, both the city of Athens and Limestone County approved a joint incentives package.

At the dedication ceremony, Tennessee Valley Authority Board Chair Joe Rich told Athens Mayor Ronnie Marks and Limestone County Commission Chairman Mark Yarbrough they must be getting tired of economic development announcements in their area.

“My god, it’s almost weekly,” he said jokingly.

Robotics Technology Park completed

A little more than a month after the Shape Corp dedication, state and local officials again gathered April 11 to cut the ribbon on the third and final phase of the Robotics Technology Park in Limestone County.

The facility provides a training ground for the state’s two-year colleges, including Calhoun Community College. Speaking on the development of the park, Bentley praised the “cooperative spirit” between education and industry leaders in Alabama.

The $9 million third phase, which is 52,000 square feet, sits in the middle of two existing phases and will be known as the Integration, Entrepreneurial and Paint/Dispense Training Center. Phase 1, the Robotic Maintenance Training Center, opened in November 2010, and Phase 2, the Advanced Technology and Research Development Center, opened in August 2011.

Ribbon cut on Asahi Kasei Plastics

April also brought the ribbon-cutting for Asahi Kasei Plastics, which constructed a 120,000-square-foot facility in Athens’ Elm Street Industrial Park. The company plans to hire 100 employees over the next 10 years, as per the terms of state and local incentives.

At its April 26 ribbon-cutting ceremony, company officials not only credited partnership in regard to its Athens facility, but also spoke of a desire to be a part of the community.

The previous February, the company participated in the Hospice Chili Challenge, and also entered a float in the Christmas parade.

Additionally, Asahi’s Plant Manager Tjokro Hermanto serves on the board of directors for Athens-Limestone United Way. Supply Chain Administrator Bunni Wheeler joined the board of the Greater Limestone County Chamber of Commerce.

At the ceremony, Yuji Kobayashi, representative director and vice presidential executive officer for the company, quoted Helen Keller: “Alone we can do so little; together, we can do so much.”

Praise from GE Aviation

GE Aviation announced in October 2015 it would build a manufacturing facility in Huntsville-annexed Limestone County, but a company official explained why at the annual meeting of the Limestone County Economic Development Association.

During his comments at the May 26 meeting, Strategy & Advanced Technology Leader Jon Lyford credited teamwork via state and local incentives as a key reason behind GE’s decision to build here. He said quality of the potential workforce and educational programs offered through the Alabama Industrial Development Training, Calhoun Community College, Athens State University and the Robotics Technology Park was also a factor.

“(The people) are highly educated, which speaks strongly of the workforce,” he said. “The academic infrastructure is superior.”

The company plans to build two adjacent factories on Greenbrier Road, just south of Interstate 565 in Huntsville-annexed Limestone County. A third building will also be constructed for administrative purposes.

One plant will produce silicon carbide (SiC) ceramic fiber and represents the first such operation in the United States. The adjacent factory will use the SiC ceramic fiber to produce the unidirectional ceramic matrix composite, or CMC, tape necessary to fabricate CMC components.

Full speed ahead for Polaris

Production on Polaris’ Ranger line began June 1, while production on the Slingshot was set to begin July 6. As of that point, the company had hired a little more than 400 employees. The company will hire at least 1,700 workers when fully staffed.

“(Expanding to Limestone County) has been a great decision for us in all measures of ways, especially with the talent we’ve been able to bring in and the number of people applying,” said Eric Blackwell, senior director of operations at the 725,000-plus-square-foot manufacturing facility on Greenbrier Road. “The city and state folks have been good to work with, so it’s been great all the way around.”

Existing industry receives help

While officials were eager to welcome new announcements and industries to Limestone County, the County Commission on June 7 offered incentives to an existing industry, Lee Precision Machine Shop.

The commission approved a one-time sales tax abatement of $10,578 and a 10-year property tax abatement in the amount of $16,298 for the company, located across from Sutton Furniture on U.S. 72 East.

Officials at the time said the abatement would enable the company to hire eight more employees and invest $628,763 to build an 8,000-square-foot addition and purchase new metal processing equipment.

The company is a prime contractor for the Defense Logistics Agency and is a small-arms approved vendor. It manufactures metal parts for a variety of weapons, from firearms to tanks.

‘Plug and play’ TVA megasite

No announcements have been made for the TVA megasite, but state and local leaders have taken a number of steps to enhance its attractiveness to industries. The city of Huntsville, Limestone County and Athens Utilities have all contributed resources to enhance infrastructure around the property.

Athens Utilities is building a new electrical substation near the tract and could build a second, depending on the scope of the project. In 2015, the city of Huntsville approved a tax-increment finance district for 7,131 acres located to the west of the Sewell tract and north of the Polaris manufacturing facility on Greenbrier Road.

Infrastructure upgrades to be funded out of the city’s sixth TIF district include the four-laning of Old Highway 20, the completion of the four-lane Greenbrier Parkway and running sanitary sewer lines from Limestone Creek to the TVA megasite. Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said those efforts helped make the TVA megasite “plug and play” for any industry ready to get rolling.

“We’ve taken all the questions out of the property,” he said at the June 15 event. “You can set up an industry and know everything is in place, so it’s much more desirable. In the real estate world, questions are what kill you every time and there’s no questions on this.”

GE Aviation groundbreaking

The day after officials gathered to celebrate the TVA megasite designation, the group met again to hold a groundbreaking ceremony for the future GE Aviation. A heat index of near 100 degrees meant the ceremony was held at the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce, and not at the future Limestone County site.

“What an exciting time to be in Huntsville and to be in this part of the state,” Bentley said at the June 16 groundbreaking. “I come here very often because all of you do such a fantastic job … enticing industry to come to this area.”

Athens helps existing business

The Athens City Council on Aug. 22 approved economic incentives for Triad Packaging Inc. in Athens after company officials said they would hire seven new employees and invest $1.45 million on a building addition and new equipment purchases.

In requesting the abatement from the council, Trial Packaging President Patrick Jacklin thanked the city for all of the support it had given in the past, saying Athens was “a great place to have a business.”

The council agreed to forgive a total of $93,548 in property and sales taxes over the next 10 years, including $55,453 in property tax over 10 years and $38,095 in sales taxes during the two-year construction period.

Limestone tract deemed ‘shovel-ready’

In early September, a 26-acre tract in the SouthPoint Business Park received an Alabama AdvantageSite designation, which represented a first for Huntsville-annexed Limestone County.

Unity and teamwork again played a role in landing the designation, according to officials with the Birmingham-based Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, which administers the program.

The program utilizes a “teamwork approach between the private sector and state and local governments geared toward having prepared product and materials ready for industrial prospects.”

Hill described the designation as “extremely important” to business recruitment efforts.

“This designation proves to our clients that this site is ready for immediate industry needs,” he said.

HDT Global announcement

A few weeks after the AdvantageSite announcement, HDT Global, an existing business in the SouthPoint Business Park, made an economic announcement. Company officials said the company would reinvest $4 million and hire 120 new workers as part of a move to a larger manufacturing facility.

“The new facility offers increased production capacity, while decreasing overhead costs and streamlining related production processes into one geographic area, strategically located in Huntsville,” said Michael Kinney, HDT’s vice president of Operations.

Polaris groundbreaking

Officials who helped lure industrial powerhouse Polaris to Limestone County again gathered Nov. 1 to cut the ribbon on the facility. Each official and company executive who spoke again credited teamwork, unity and regional cooperation in landing the facility.

Bentley praised local officials, while state Secretary of Commerce Greg Canfield praised Bentley for giving state officials the charge to do “everything we could, within reason, to make it happen.”

“The investments you’ve made in us, and let me tell you they were significant,” said Polaris Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Scott Wine. “We weren’t bashful about asking, and the answer was rarely ‘no.’ It was, ‘Let us find a way.’”