The Alliance for Economic Development of Oklahoma City

PROJECT PURPOSE

Oklahoma City is in need of additional sites that can be held and reserved as employment lands when industries are recruited to the metroplex. Large acreages for mega-employers are needed and are difficult to find with adequate utilities and infrastructure. Funds are needed to build or improve the water and sewer infrastructure to 4 areas in the metroplex to target these large open acreages for mega-employers. These mega-site locations in Oklahoma City are being sought with traditional funding through local industrial authorities. These locations will serve to bring employment opportunities to the metroplex and surrounding Counties. Three sites are in the SE quadrant of the City and will serve the Tinker AFB industrial base and also nearby industrial users. Two sites are on the West side of the metroplex, one located near Will Rogers Airport and the other near CE Page Airpark. All of these sites will bring employment opportunities for the 5 county area.

EVIDENCE

The Employment Land Needs Assessment and Action Plan (Attached) shows that OKC has difficulty recruiting large industrial companies due to lack of suitable sites, fragmentation and encroachment. Feedback from lost projects showed that the lack of building sites was the primary reason for not located in OKC. The study recommends that we focus on development-ready sites in high priority areas. These large open land tracts typically lie further outside the built up areas of the metroplex and therefore infrastructure has not been built to service those lands.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

These employment lands will serve as employment bases for the Oklahoma City Metroplex. Rural communities within the 5 county area will also be served by the jobs created with these employment lands once developed for industrial/manufacturing/distribution uses. Many of the most underserved communities lie within the NE, NW and SE quadrants of Oklahoma City. The targeted employment lands will be inside these area?s to provide jobs and tax base growth within those communities.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

The success of the project will be measured in the number of new jobs created. Many companies needing mega-sites promise to bring over 1000 new jobs, millions of dollars of new facilities/buildings and manufacturing of new items. For example on recent project that OKC is competing for and is on the finalist has an expected Capital Expenditure of $800,000,000.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

One-time project will not need continued funding