If capital investment is a gauge of economic activity, then the economy didn’t do well here last year.

The county attracted $81.8 million in capital investment, with $53.3 million of that total coming from expansions of existing industries, according to the Cherokee County Development Board’s annual report.

In 2004, the county attracted $110 million in capital investment.

“The economic development year for Cherokee County was not as great as had been hoped,” the report said. “However the addition of four new companies and the expansion of Suminoe Textiles of America, Duke Power’s additional investment in their hydro plant and other additional investment by companies that wished to remain anonymous tallied up an acceptable growth.”

The report said the figure was in line with the capital investment for most years.

SpectAL, Universal Molding, Tahoe LLC and Lowe’s opened last year. SpectAL supplies more than 75 percent of all school bus windows in North America. Tahoe LLC purchased the former Elizabeth Weaving plant on Elm Road.

The $8.5 million Lowe’s store located on the site of the former Wal-Mart store at the Peachtree Marketplace.

Universal Molding wasn’t open long. The Canadian company filed for bankruptcy protection last fall.

Expansions of existing industry accounted for 65 percent of the capital investment last year. Suminoe Textiles announced a 45,000 squarefoot, $8 million expansion to its Meadowcreek Industrial Park plant.

Duke Power’s upgrades to its Ninety-Nine Island facility accounted for another $11 million in capital investment.

Job creation also dipped a bit last year. There were 465 new jobs created here in 2005, down from 491 the previous year.

Cherokee Corporate Park will be gaining a new spec building in 2006. Work is also underway to extend water and sewer lines to the Upstate Corporate Park near the Spartanburg County line.