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Short of a $700 bailout, 2008 was a depressing year for banks, automakers and consumers on a worldwide scale.

In the Attleboro area, there was little to counteract a sense of gloom, except for a juggernaut of economic development in Foxboro called Patriot Place and brave talk by community and business leaders. And homeowners, shocked by a stalled real estate market and declining resale prices, continued to look over their shoulders at a worsening foreclosure crisis.

A national banking panic that left both Wall Street and Main Street badly shaken was echoed locally by the apparent collapse of Attleboro's Industrial Business Park, declared insolvent after its two major tenants withdrew.

There was also a rise in layoffs in previously expanding local companies like Sensata Technologies and ominous news that time was running out for promising technology firms like Spherics and Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, once counted on as economic engines of the future.

Yet there were also indications of hope for the future on the area's economic horizon, particularly in the flowering of Bob Kraft's $350 million "lifestyle center" at Patriot Place and the designation of a large piece of land owned by the New England Patriots boss for possible future use as a massive biotech park. There were also early successes by emerging green technology companies developing ideas ranging from windpower technology to creating electricity out of treated wastewater.

Locally, the mood of local businesses remained concerned yet determined, said United Regional Chamber of Commerce President Jack Lank.

"People have battened down the hatches and are trying to keep their expansion plans in line," Lank said, although there is some hope that banks will loosen up on credit terms by the second quarter of 2009 and thereby keep the wheels of commerce turning.

In the meantime, Lank said, businesses are looking to husband their resources and are doing what they can to encourage consumers to spend money locally.

In a year that saw a continuing ballooning in the number of real estate foreclosures nationally and the first, second, third, fourth and fifth largest one-day drops in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the year did not start out as a total negative locally.

Despite a historic shrinkage in manufacturing jobs, one of the area's largest companies expanded its commitment to Attleboro by consolidating various branches in the former Swank building and raising its number of employees from 380 to 900.

But Cookson Precious Metals, which purchased homegrown Stern-Leach Co. in 1988, stubbed its toe when a passage in its annual report said it was sending 200 of those jobs offshore to the Dominican Republic. However, company officials later said that wasn't true and that the company has a long-term commitment to the city.

Cookson was one of the bright spots in a local economy which seemed beset by negative news, however.

The Industrial Business Park, touted for years as the key to Attleboro's industrial future, seemed to fall apart virtually as horrified citizens watched. With mounting costs, adverse court decisions and an inability to sign up tenants, the Attleboro Redevelopment Authority-planned park was found to be insolvent and headed for an uncertain future by fall.

Automatic Machine Products pulled out of the park and and decided to move to Taunton, instead. And Needletech, a rising medical products firm with good future prospects, said it would look to other options during 2008, leaving the controversial park without even one prospective occupant. With an economic recession well in progress, prospects for the future looked poor and the agency's directors and chief executive, Michael Milanoski, came under withering public attack.

One of the major hopes for the local technology economy seemed well on the way to being fulfilled with the growth of medical products firms such as Covidien and Medline at the Cabot Business Park in Mansfield. But as the economy worsened, there were stark reminders that not even growth industry companies with bright ideas and enthusiastic backers were safe from disaster.

Innovative Spherics Pharmaceuticals, which had been granted tax breaks to move into a plant in Mansfield, suddenly halted business in September after a major backer withdrew financing. And Foxboro's Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, featured in a 60 Minutes report for its miraculous technology allowing quadriplegics to control their environment by tapping brain waves, hung on the edge of bankruptcy by year-end.

But there were also promising success stories. Clever entrepreneurs like Donald Crookes saw an energy-producing opportunity in treatment of food processing waste and was on track to create the first ever test plant for his Hy-SyEnce hydrogen systems engineering company.

Two of the biggest innovation stories came literally out of the air - in the form of two homegrown companies dedicated to adapting new technology to windpower generation and energy saving devices, such as a system to turn diesel exhaust into new energy.

Counter to its medical technology neighbors, Attleboro-based Mechanology, co-founded by local engineer and inventor Steve Chomyszak, continued to make progress during 2008, including a $1.2 million contract to develop a system to conserve diesel fuel for the military. In addition, Mechanology's innovative airhandling compressors and expanders continued to find additional applications in manufacturing and green technology sectors.

General Compression, meanwhile, continued its push to commercialize its unique stored windpower technology leveraged on the back of Mechanology's air handling expertise. If successful, General Compression could turn windpower from an "only when the wind blows" technology into power that could be stored and tapped for hours after tubine blades have stopped spinning.

Silver linings were harder to spot for the area's workers and homeowners at year's end as jobless numbers and foreclosures continued to spike.

Unemployment climbed substantially throughout the Attleboro area as many communities exceeded the statewide average. In Attleboro, the unemployment rate shot from 4.2 percent in November 2007 to 6.7 percent last month. Statewide, joblessness increased from 3.8 to 5.5 percent over the same 12-month period.

And while President George W. Bush arranged a $17 billion bailout for the Big Three automakers, rescue remained a faint hope to an increasing number of area homeowners as mortgages payments fell further and further behind. Statewide, foreclosure deeds filed in October 2008 increased 24.3 percent over September and 34.4 percent over the previous year.

Consumers did get some comfort near yearend in two forms: a dramatic reduction in the price of gasoline and heating fuel and a record drop in consumer prices.

Gasoline, which had topped $4 a gallon during the summer, slumped steadily through the fall and cracked the $1.60 level by mid-December. Consumer prices, meanwhile, fell an unprecedented 1.7 percent in November, alone, according to Department of Labor figures.

While the region's economic future remained uncertain at year's end, New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft's Midas Touch as a land developer as well as sports and manufacturing entrepreneur continued virtually untarnished by recession fears.

Kraft's one-of-a kind Patriot Place featuring premium stores and restaurants, a hotel and live entertainment, continued to fill up with stores and customers during 2008. Patriots spokesman Stacey James said full occupancy is expected this spring.

With possibly greater importance for the future, the Patrick administration designated 500 acres owned by Kraft as a "growth district," making it eligible for faster government approvals and state infrastructure support. The designation could ultimately aid Kraft's plans for a 1.5 million-square-foot office and research park possibly tied to the biotechnology industry.