May 6—ATHENS — Tony McCormack feels a sense of pride when he sees motorists from Limestone County and other states fill the 120 fueling stations at the Buc-ee's in Athens almost six months after it opened.

He and his commercial real estate company were instrumental in bringing the 53,470-square-foot travel center to Athens.

"My most accomplished goal by far has been being able to secure Buc-ee's to locate here in Athens," said McCormack, one of several business leaders honored recently by the Athens-Limestone Chamber of Commerce. "It's a tremendous game-changer for our community. Buc-ee's will be one of the largest tax generators in the form of sales tax, fuel tax and property tax for our community."

McCormack said he and his company helped officials find ways to extend sewer to the store and obtain rights of way to widen Huntsville Brownsferry Road.

"We worked hand-in-hand with the guys with Buc-ee's, the city, the county and all the other players that were involved. We were the main driver for it and securing that location."

McCormack, from unincorporated Limestone County, started Progressive Realty Group in 2008 and said he works with buyers and sellers. He said the biggest challenge Buc-ee's faced coming in to its location at the southeast corner of Interstate 65 and Huntsville Brownsferry Road was that there was no sewer connection in that area and Athens didn't have money readily available to extend its system.

"I persuaded Buc-ee's to loan Athens $3 million to jump-start getting sewer installed," McCormack said. "This sewer, it helped Buc-ee's, but it will be a tremendous benefit for other potential development in the area. The sewer, without Buc-ee's, you would not have any of the development and all of the stuff that's going on down there now."

Buc-ee's is being reimbursed from what it collects in city sales and fuel taxes.

McCormack said Buc-ee's will spur more development nearby.

"There are numerous projects looking at that area for expansion within a mile radius of Buc-ee's," he said. "It's going to be a lot of commercial property down there that's being developed."

McCormack said Huntsville Brownsferry Road had to be widened to assist Buc-ee's.

"I worked with several property owners to acquire right of way needed to expand the road in order to complete this project," he said. "I was able to do it in a timely manner in order to keep the Buc-ee's project onboard, going forward."

McCormack said he also worked with Athens to have the traffic signal installed at Lindsay Lane and Huntsville Brownsferry Road and getting Lindsay Lane extended south across Huntsville Brownsferry.

"Our job is to sell the land," he said. "But it's also part of our job to make that happen."

At the Athens-Limestone County Chamber of Commerce annual membership meeting gala on April 27 at the Alabama Veterans Museum, three business awards were given. McCormack won the Business Person of the Year award, Lauren Marsh won the Executive Leadership award, and Caroline Canestrari won the Young Professional of the Year award. Two other awards were also given: Holly Hollman won the Excellence in Public Service award and Jennifer Matthews won the Community Hero award.

Jerome Malone, Athens-Limestone Chamber of Commerce chairman-elect, said McCormack is deserving of his honor.

"He does an excellent job of representing Athens and the north Alabama area for bringing those businesses in," Malone said. "He also believes in reaching back and and helping those that are coming behind him. That's been my experience since I've been on the board; just taking individuals under his wing and helping them to grow."

Some of McCormack's company's other projects have been helping Bryant Bank acquire land for its new building on U.S. 31 and assisting businesses on the downtown square find locations.

McCormack graduated from Ardmore High School and received his certificate in drafting from Limestone County Career Technical Center. He is married to Vickie McCormack, and they have two children.

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Lauren Marsh, Executive Leadership award

Marsh, 37, from Athens, is the president of Ridgeline Construction Roofing & Exteriors which she and her husband, Terry Marsh, began in 2012. She said when they started the business, she did not think about it being a male-dominated field.

"I didn't even think about it until I was already in it, and I was like, oh yeah, I'm in the minority in this area. You just have a little more to prove to people, show them that you do have a voice here, you do have a right to be here," Marsh said. "Every little girl doesn't grow up to dream of being a roofing exterior contractor."

Marsh said her career choice is harder for her than it is for her husband because of the way females are viewed in the construction industry. She said it can be intimidating.

"Being a woman in a male-dominated industry is really fun to watch that develop and grow and bring more women into the industry," she said. "We went to a working event back in February and just to see the amount of women that are finally starting to feel comfortable to go to these events and to be involved in the construction industry is a really cool thing to be a part of."

Marsh said her eldest daughter, Lili-Grace Marsh, 20, has been working with her.

"It is important to me to be an example to her (with) hard work and entrepreneur(ship) so she can really see and understand what it's like to be a business owner and bring her alongside me, as well being a woman in this industry and priming her to do the same," she said.

Ridgeline has four offices in south Alabama and Florida with Athens being the home office. They work with builders such as D.R. Horton and Breland Homes and worked on The Links at Canebrake in Athens.

"We do both residential and commercial buildings. We do new construction as well as existing construction remodel, as far as exterior goes," Marsh said. "A lot of our bigger projects are in the Huntsville area, but our more residential stuff is in Athens and Limestone County."

Marsh attended Bob Jones High School and she and Terry have four children.

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Caroline Canestrari, Young Professional of the Year

Canestrari, 33, from Athens, has been the director of the Athens-Limestone Hospital Foundation, which is a nonprofit, for five years.

"We raise money for different needs within the hospital," she said. "Our goal is to provide the best quality care and top-quality equipment for our community and for our patients that we serve."

Canestrari said she feels like she is living out her calling because she has always known she wanted to help people.

"I knew at a very young age that I wanted to do something to make a difference and to work in a helping position," she said. "It has been the most wonderful job to make a difference for the community and to better health care and to provide the best equipment and to know I'm a small part of making a difference for the community. ... I wanted to have a profession where I could be a positive influence or make an impact, whether that's directly helping someone or indirectly helping someone."

Canestrari is a member of the Patient and Family Council at the hospital and said it is an opportunity to improve patients' experiences at the hospital.

"It's made up of community volunteers and staff members to promote cooperation between consumers of the hospital services and the leadership," she said. "That way, as a staff member, we are able to listen and learn from the patients' experience and to gather information from their families and their personal experiences that they had at the hospital so that we can make the improvements that we need at the hospital so we can better serve the community."

Canestrari attended Florence High, received her bachelor's degree in human development and family studies from the University of Alabama and her master's degree in community counseling from the University of North Alabama. She is married to Wes Canestrari and they have two children.

—erica.smith@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2460.