ATHENS, Ala. – When large companies like Mazda Toyota come to town, they make capital investments in land to buildup their infrastructure as well as the economy around them. That investment, along with a few others propelled Limestone County as the state leader in capital investments.

Mazda Toyota is located in Huntsville but it’s actually in Limestone County. Limestone generated $1.1 billion in capital growth in 2020. Mobile County came in second at $851 million.

“It shows that we are business friendly. That we have infrastructure. That we have property people are interested in,” said Bethany Shockney, the President and CEO of the Limestone County Economic Development Association.

Mazda Toyota generated $830 million in capital investments, nearly as much as the entire total capital growth in Mobile County. Toyota Tsusho America is investing over $77 million while Indorama Ventures Sustainable Solutions is shelling out $40 million in Limestone, just to name a few larger investments.

“A qualifier for our community, is we do have a skilled workforce that is trained and ready to go to work. And that we are prepared to provide that workforce as they large companies ramp up,” said Shockney.

Economic leaders in Limestone County say people living in Madison County but commuting to jobs in Limestone are starting to show serious economic payoffs.

“That’s fantastic because that helps our sales tax base as well. We want people to buy gas here. We want people to buy groceries here.”

As far as job growth, Madison County finished top five in the state with 636 new jobs in 2020. Limestone County is usually near the top, but many of their recent job growth numbers were counted in 2019 and could not be counted in 2020. Some of those jobs start of the course of the next few years.

Alabama added 9,466 jobs over the course of 2020, despite the pandemic. Capital investments across the state equaled 4.8 billion dollars.

You can view the recent report here.