A European auto supplier opening its U.S. headquarters in Augusta gave local officials a pre-opening tour of the plant that will produce acoustic barriers for automakers such as BMW, Volvo and Mercedes-Benz.

Executives with Barcelona, Spain-based Acoustic & Insulation Techniques on Wednesday said the 75,000-square-foot manufacturing and distribution center in the Forward Augusta Industrial Park will open in October with more than two-dozen employees.

A second-phase expansion, which would supply General Motors and Fiat Chrysler, could nearly double the workforce at the south Augusta plant near the corner of Tobacco Road and Mike Padgett Highway.

Antonio Pomes, president and CEO of the Spanish company known as AIT, said the company has been supplying U.S. customers for 18 years from its plants in Spain and Poland.

“I have always said we have had an American dream,” Pomes said during the tour. “We are very happy for all the people who have cooperated with us to make it a reality.”

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A new fellowship hall is under construction at downtown Augusta’s Lutheran Church of the Resurrection.

“Our space wasn’t adequate for growth and future needs,” said the Rev. David Hunter, the church’s pastor.

Construction began in March after a $1.4 million capital campaign which included $100,000 for the construction of a Habitat For Humanity home for a family with special needs. The house should be dedicated by the first of August, he said.

Reiser Hall was razed to make way for the new space which will have about 1,500 more square feet than the original one. The new Reiser Hall will have about 4,300 square feet including a kitchen and bathrooms. It is scheduled to be completed in the fall.

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One of metro Augusta’s most visible shopping centers is getting more visible.

The Village at Riverwatch development is undergoing a massive landscaping plan that will flatten the slope along River Watch Parkway and give the entrance a more consistent look by spring.

Dennis Trotter, a partner in Jordan Trotter Commercial Real Estate, which markets the 120-acre site, said the improvements will put the center’s periphery in line with landscaping along Alexander Drive.

“it’s a really important gateway into our area 52 weeks a year, but especially Masters Week,” he said of the property near Interstate 20 exit 199. “It needs to look first class all the time.”

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Columbia County’s oldest movie theater is going to start showing movies again – and a lot more.

The old Columbia Theatre in Harlem is undergoing an extensive renovation, so by next summer the city hopes to reopen the building as a visitors center; a 50- to 75-seat theater for both classic and contemporary films; and a larger museum paying tribute to the legendary movie comedy team that is the city’s biggest tourist draw.

Dozens of residents got a glimpse of what’s planned for the old theater Thursday evening at a public meeting in Harlem. A presentation showed the condition of the building now, and what needs to be done to it to help boost the small city’s downtown as a popular visitor destination.

The big event that draws thousands of people to Harlem each October is the Oliver Hardy Festival, which pays tribute to Laurel and Hardy, the slapstick comedy duo that made more than 100 movies from the 1920s to the ’50s. Hardy was born in Harlem in 1892.

“It gives downtown Harlem a center point. So we’re real excited about that,” City Manager Brett Cook said. “I think it’ll be good for all businesses in Harlem, but it’ll be good for the residents, too, just being able to have a place we can direct people to. I think having a visitors center here is going to be a good step forward.”

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A $2 million multi-purpose arena for Barnwell County is in the planning and financing stages but is not going to be funded by local taxpayers, announced local officials at a recent Barnwell County Council meeting.

Barnwell County Councilman Jerry Creech, when interviewed after the meeting, said the project has been in the “fact finding” stage for nearly two years by numerous interested people and will be the focus of the newly-revived Barnwell County Recreation Committee (which had been done away with in 2013). Their hopes are that the public/private project will be a huge economic boon to Barnwell County, bringing in visitors and providing opportunities for hotel/motels, restaurants, convenience stores and shopping.

Watson Lee Dorn III, an architect with the firm Johnson, Laschober & Associates of Augusta, Ga., presented architectural renderings of the project at the council meeting held Tuesday, April 10 before a standing-room-only crowd of supporters of the plan.