ROGERS — Hundreds of jobs were created and millions of dollars spent for capital improvement in 2013, the president and chief executive officer for the Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce said Wednesday.

Raymond Burns spoke to the Rogers-Lowell Economic Development Corp. board during its annual meeting.

The group receives public money, including from Rogers. The money is used for economic development services.

“It was a very good year for us,” said Burns, who handles the business for the corporation board.

Job creation, a standing goal for the corporation, was better than expected in 2013, board members said.

There were 1,600 jobs created by Serco's call center last year, where employees help people fill out Affordable Care Act forms.

Chamber officials are working with two manufacturers planning to announce expansion projects in the next few weeks. One of the companies is expected to create 50 jobs and build a 100,000-square-foot facility. The other company is expected to create eight jobs and spend more than $6 million in capital investment, Burns said.

Six additional unnamed businesses may expand, creating 200 jobs and more than $50 million in capital improvement, according to the fourth-quarter economic development report.

Chamber officials don’t announce the names of companies until representatives are ready to make the information known.

Ten restaurants opened in 2013, including Chuy’s. Longhorn Steakhouse, Freddy’s and Pei Wei are to open this year, according to the report.

Allyson Twiggs Dyer, executive director of Visit Rogers, said leisure travel is also growing.

“The Regional Sports Park helped bring more people to the city on the weekends, where they stayed in our hotels, ate in our restaurants and shopped in our stores. Leisure travel won’t ever be as big, or draw as many visitors, as conventions, but it does adds to the number of people coming to Rogers,” Dyer said. Rogers hosted 60 groups or events last year attracting 30,136 visitors.

“It seems to me we're in pretty good shape going into 2014,” said Mike Watts, board chairman. “I suspect 2014 will be better than last year.”

The board also approved a $300,000 contract for providing economic development for the city. The corporation received $200,000 already; Burns said the extra $100,000 is slated to go to Market Street Services for a study to set goals and how to reach them.