Following some high-profile community losses, the Albert Lea Economic Development Agency Executive Director said he has dubbed 2018 “the year of positivity.”

At the 73rd annual Greater Jobs Inc. meeting Wednesday, Greater Jobs Inc. president Mark Heinemann said that despite some business closures and moves, Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea’s announcement of service consolidation to Austin and a second-place finish as a Hy-Vee distribution center, 2017 still showed tax base growth, growth in population and growth in local companies.

“Economic development doesn’t happen in a straight line,” ALEDA Executive Director Ryan Nolander said, citing a letter from Heinemann to members. “Sometimes it zigs, sometimes it zags.”

If the “zigs” are closures, moves, consolidations and losses, the “zags” Greater Jobs Inc. focused on from the year include a collaboration with Zumbro River Brand.

Zumbro River Brand CEO Pamela Sander said through Greater Jobs Inc.’s building project behind Zumbro’s current facility in Albert Lea’s northern industrial area, the business has been able to acquire equipment it would not have had the capital to attain due to expansion costs.

“I just think this is a fabulous example of business development,” Sander said.

According to Sander, Zumbro River Brand will pay a higher lease to use the new facility until it has acquired the capital to purchase it, which Nolander and Sander estimate will be close to five years down the line. Greater Jobs Inc. plans to fill the building Zumbro is currently leasing after it moves to the new facility.

“They saw that it would really help our efficiency,” Sander said. Nolander said the project deadline for the building is now mid-February.

The year 2017 also saw a full Albert Lea Business Development Center for the first time Nolander has seen in his 13 years with ALEDA, he said, and all of the organization’s 260,000 square feet it manages are full. Additionally, Nolander said ALEDA is working on a potential lease for a business startup downtown. He declined to comment further.

ALEDA small business and marketing manager Noelle Hagen said she has spent some of 2017 working on building relationships with a baker’s dozen of site selectors across the United States. The relationship-building included mailing site selectors Mrs. Gerry’s potato salad in a box with a “refrigerate immediately” sticker on the side.

“We wanted to do something to get on their radar — to spark a conversation,” Hagen said.

The box also included information about Mrs. Gerry’s and the community itself, and has since been followed up with phone conversations, emails and a batch of Bloody Mary Pickles from Albert Lea Business Development Center tenant Grandma’s Gourmets.

“It’s not easy to market the community outside,” Hagen said.

The purpose of the mailings and follow-up conversations is to put the community on the site selector’s radar so when it approach the state with requests for communities to develop in, Albert Lea might already be on their minds.

“It’s a different and unique way to do it,” Hagen said.

However, looking into 2018, Nolander said the board is looking to focus 60 to 80 percent of its time on assisting and growing local businesses.

“We’ll still keep putting our best foot forward on those projects, but we really want to focus on helping our local business,” Nolander said.