Toyota growth helps trim jobless numbers

As the nation's economy enjoyed recovery in 2004, Huntsville also saw modest growth. Downtown developed. Toyota Motor Manufacturing announced more jobs. While Madison County did see some job losses, its unemployment rate for November dropped from the same month in 2003, to 3.8 percent from 4.6 percent.

Here are this year's top local business stories, selected by The Times business staff.

1. Toyota expands here. Gov. Bob Riley joined Toyota executives and community leaders Sept. 24 in Montgomery to announce a $250 million expansion at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Alabama's plant in North Huntsville Industrial Park. The project will add 300 jobs and supply V-8 engines for Toyota plants in Indiana and San Antonio.

Toyota decided to build in Huntsville three and a half years ago. This was the automaker's second announced expansion in less than a year.

When both expansions are fully operational in 2006, Huntsville's Toyota plant will employ 800 workers and churn out 400,000 V-8 and V-6 engines a year. Initial employment was 350. The first expansion adding the V-6 line called for 150 additional workers.

2. Intergraph earns millions in settlements. Intergraph Corp. settled its patent claims against Intel, Dell, Gateway and Advanced Micro Devices. The settlements netted the company more than $225 million in 2004, along with the prospect of future royalties from Gateway and AMD. Most of the patent claims involved use of Intergraph's patented Clipper chip technology that a federal court found in 2001 was used in the design of Intel's Pentium Processor. Intel, which previously settled the Clipper chip case for $300 million, paid Intergraph $225 million to settle a dispute over technology used in Intel's line of Itanium processors. Intel's payments also covered Intergraph's claims against Dell Inc.

Intergraph's remaining patent claim is against Hewlett-Packard and the case has been scheduled for trial in Texas in February.

3. Siemens buys local DaimlerChrysler plants. In February the long-rumored sale of the Huntsville Chrysler electronics plants was completed. Siemens VDO Automotive bought the plants, which make dashboard, audio engine and car-body electronics, for an undisclosed price. The plants employed about 2,400 people at the time of the sale. Siemens officials said they wanted the Huntsville sites to become an engineering center for the company and take advantage of the increased auto manufacturing sector that has been established in Alabama and surrounding states.

4. Avocent pays $100 million for California-based software company. In a deal announced in March, Avocent Corp. said it would pay $52 million in cash and $48 million in stock to acquire OSA Technologies Inc. The company is based in San Jose, Calif., but does most of its work in Asia. Avocent officials said OSA products, which include trouble-shooting software for remotely located computers and related tools, perfectly complement Avocent's range of remote computer server and device management products.

5. 1,000-Home Development Planned. Enfinger Development announced in June plans to build McMullen Cove, a 1,600-acre master-planned community off Old Highway 431 in east Huntsville. The development will include 1,004 homes among 16 neighborhoods branching off a mile-long boulevard that will run to the head of a valley. The property lies less than a mile from the edge of Hampton Cove.

Construction of the first phase is expected to begin this year, with lot sales starting in the spring and homes possibly complete by Christmas 2005. Enfinger expects 125 to 175 homes to be built in the first phase.

6. Brian Homes goes bust. Brian Homes, one of North Alabama's largest building firms, couldn't overcome mounting debts and customer lawsuits in 2004. The company had millions of dollars worth of property auctioned off the courthouse steps in Huntsville, Decatur and Athens last spring. A company attorney said when the company's founder took ill, building slowed and income was no longer enough to keep up with debts and obligations.

Brian Homes had built subdivisions across the Tennessee Valley for 20 years.

7. Verilink faces changes, challenges. Huntsville-based Verilink Corp. announced in December it was moving its corporate headquarters from Huntsville to Centennial, Colo. Engineering, manufacturing and administrative functions will stay in Hunts-ville, but top company managers, including CEO Leigh Belden and new Chief Financial Officer Timothy Anderson, will reside in Colorado.

Verilink acquired two companies in 2004 in largely stock-related swaps for $43 million. The acquisitions were aimed at expanding the company's markets and customer base and to help offset the loss of Verilink's largest customer, Nortel, which announced it will largely eliminate its use of Verilink products.

A combination of reduced cash reserves and the impact of the Nortel business loss led Verilink's independent auditors to report in October its doubts about the company's ability to continue to operate. Company officials said they were working to address expense and revenue concerns, but could not predict future operations beyond the end of its next fiscal year in July 2005.

8. Bridge Street lands the state's first Westin hotel. The World Famous Bridge Street, a retail-office-residential center planned for Cummings Research Park, announced last month it will include the state's first Westin Hotel.

The Westin Huntsville will have 200 rooms and an adjacent 8,000-square-foot conference center. The ground floor of the hotel will have a mix of uses - a lobby, day spa, health club, indoor/outdoor pool, a full-service restaurant and two retail shops.

The hotel's top floors will house 40 private condominium residences, developers said. The top six floors of the building, which will be built on the north shore of the manmade lakes at the Bridge Street project, will contain the condo units, which will range from 1,500 to 3,000 square feet.

Bridge Street is a $210 million, 100-acre development at the corner of Old Madison Pike and Research Park Boulevard that will also include office buildings, apartments, shops and restaurants. Regal Cinemas announced last year it plans to build a 16-screen theater there. Bridge Street's developer O&S Holdings LLC, based in Los Angeles, said hotel work should begin in the first quarter of 2005 and open in September 2006.

9. DirecTV announces call center, expects 1,000 jobs. In May, DirecTV announced it would open a company-owned call center at 400 Diamond Drive, a building in Thornton Research Park once occupied by SCI Systems Inc. In July, the company estimated the call center would result in about 1,000 jobs.

"We're looking at approximately 1,000 new DirecTV jobs in the market," DirecTV's Robert Mercer said.

Most DirecTV technical calls have been handled by two locations of West TeleServices, including the West call center in Huntsville, which opened in July 2000.

10. Big Spring Summit office tower breaks ground. After several delays, the controversial Big Spring Summit office tower began construction.

At the groundbreaking ceremony in November, officials for Triad Properties, which is building the seven-story office building, announced plans to expand the project to include 40-60 residential condominiums. The condos would be part of a second phase of development next to the Summit that could include more office space and retail stores.

Some residents and city leaders have opposed the project, saying it encroaches on Big Spring International Park.