As the economy slowly recovers nationwide, Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce officials are seeing positive signs locally for 2011.

"I'm as upbeat about 2011 as I have been in recent years," said Tim Evans, the chamber's vice president of economic development. "We have a great community, location, work force and an all-star team of business and elected leadership."

In partnership with the chamber, the Gainesville-Hall County Economic Development Council is working on 55 active projects, including new businesses, existing industry expansions, small businesses and retail development.

"We have some retail and industrial announcements on the horizon in early 2011," Evans said. "The (University of Georgia) Terry College of Business has forecasted a robust year ahead for manufacturing, life sciences and the service sector, and we are well positioned to benefit from that expected growth."

In an annual report, the chamber and economic development council noted Tuesday that 2010 brought 867 new jobs and $217 million in investments from 16 businesses.

"That is great in any year, but especially this year. We need the jobs," said Kit Dunlap, chamber president. "This success confirms the private investments businesses have made in the chamber's Hallmark Initiative to support economic development."

The total jobs and investment for 2010 represents a 65 percent increase in jobs and double the investment over the previous year, including industries that retained 115 jobs that might have otherwise gone elsewhere.

New investments included American Yazaki Corp. of Japan, GMI of Scotland, ZF Wind Power of Germany and King's Hawaiian of California. Most of these will hire the bulk of their permanent jobs in 2011, but several existing industry expansions, such as IMS and elringklinger of Germany, began hiring staff in 2010.

"Our existing industry program is a cornerstone of the chamber and economic development council's job creation and retention effort for the community," said Russell Vandiver, president of Lanier Technical College and chairman of the economic development council. "As a community, we've survived a real consolidation period in U.S. manufacturing, and I credit the existing industry program."

Hall County residents will continue to see redevelopment activity in Gainesville, Flowery Branch, Oakwood and Lula, which are leveraging public investment in their downtown areas to encourage additional private investment.

"Investing in a healthy downtown is vital to the entire community," Gainesville Mayor Ruth Bruner said. "Our downtown areas should be places where citizens from the county and region want to do business and spend their free time."

As Hall County sees expansion in manufacturing and the life science sectors, the Lanier Tech Manufacturing Development Center is seeing a boom in design and development companies for medical devices.

"Most people don't know this is happening here in Gainesville," said Carroll Turner, the center's director. "We've got UGA, Georgia Tech, Lanier Tech and Brenau University all here at the Featherbone Communiversity, so there's a lot of synergy."

The center houses 12 companies, most of which design and distribute hardware for medical devices. Turner pointed out several, including a brain retractor that lifts the brain during complicated surgeries, emergency room back boards that help with stability and bone putty that helps heal bones.

"Sometimes a startup company needs a quick boost as to how they run their business operations, so they come here," Turner said. "Four years ago, this was a vacant building ... now we're busy at night and on the weekends."

As officials are hopeful for the future, Assistant Hall County Administrator Phil Sutton is remaining cautious.

"Economic indicators look like they're turning up strongly, but until housing turns up, it won't have a positive effect on our revenue," he said. "It's down and is likely to stay down. Sales taxes in the last two months have been the worst I've seen."

Sutton linked the slump in sales tax to the poor housing market, with consumers not purchasing items for their homes. It may also take a while to see the effects of recent retail and industry development.

"The chamber landed quite a few large industries, which will start to have a positive effect once the constructions are over and they begin hiring, but I don't know when that's going to be," Sutton said. "There's lag time between positive economic activity and when we start to see changes in revenue. We're holding tight for now."