Why Didn't OKC Land the Toyota NA HQ Relocation and What we Can do in the Future

[Plutonic Panda]

Found this story in the Dallas Morning News and it got me thinking....

If they looked at over one hundred cities, then surely OKC was looked at. Why didn't we get it? This statement

“Plano will offer our company and our employees many benefits, including a moderate cost of living, affordable housing, low taxes, proximity to our manufacturing base and direct travel to most of our North American operations and Japan,” the statement said.

leads me to believe was because of our airport.

So my thinking here is, does any of our aviation experts(Venture and Catch22) think the industry will rebound in ways that might be unexpected and possibly new hubs might become a thing again? Surely hubs aren't done forever even though they have been on the decline recently, but if the economy keeps improving, we could expand our airport or perhaps build an entirely new one as part of a new MAPS initiative and build something not necessarily to directly compete with DFW(seeing as they have 7 million people), but become another major regional airport that could be considered another option: a city with low traffic, low cost of living, and none of the burdens that comes with living in a massive city such as DFW, but with a large, direct access, international airport.

If the space is there, then lets expand Will Rodgers airport. We already have the FAA, so our airport is already a somewhat big player in the industry I'd think. We have to market ourselves right. Let's get innovative here. A couple of ideas just thrown out there, we could combine our airport with an attached space port, we could set up a testing and research facility for new aircraft, we could build a world class expansion that could land us a hub one day, build light-rail around the airport and connect it with the new--hopefully--world class convention center, and there are tons of other things I'm sure we can do that could bring new traffic to the airport and make ourselves more attractive to airlines.

After this MAPS3 is completed, we really need to get projects that will bring more people in and out of our airport and get more traffic here. Since our convention center, expo hall, white water course, and river improvements should already attract some significant traffic, we are on pretty good grounds, it is just a matter of building the projects and getting them finished.

I understand it isn't the end of the world we didn't get the Toyota NA HQ Relocation, but it would be nice if we did, but we didn't so we need to figure out why and what we can do to fix it. There is no reason we can't get the HQ's Dallas is getting seeing as how our city is becoming better and better everyday and is already an awesome city to begin with.

I think if OKC can get its ducks in a row, we could become and urban meca center for the central US seeing as how we are experiencing a huge urban boom in the core. If we could urbanize nearly everything in the I40, I44, and I35 ring, we could really market something off of that. A large, dense, mixed use core with light-rail through-out the city. The main thing we need to look at, is burying 235 between I40 and I44 and putting in a park above it with a street car running through it.

BTW, I am going to put together an email and send it to Toyota trying to figure out which cities were and looked, if OKC was looked at and why we weren't chosen.

[bchris02]

I agree. OKC's airport is one of the key things holding back its momentum. It's a good question though what could be done about and can anything even be done. A tax incentive to expand the airport obviously would never fly with the group currently at 23rd and Lincoln. With the free market, it's kind of a catch-22 situation. OKC's airport won't get the traffic to support a substantial expansion without some major national or world HQ relocations, yet OKC will never get those relocations with its current airport. If maybe the state of Oklahoma could negotiate some kind of deal to expand the airport that included the relocation of a major world HQ or two, but that may never even be a wild possibility.

[soonerguru]

Dallas got the airport. We didn't. Big difference.

[KenRagsdale]

The Oklahoma Department of Commerce, as opposed to the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce (which conducts its own marketing), has compiled research to determine which areas the state may be most competitive in luring new business. The commerce department, along with all state agencies, has been subject to budget cutbacks. In addition, commerce is one of the smaller state agencies.

The state directs its recruitment focus toward these broad areas:

1.) Aerospace;

2.) energy;

3.) bioscience;

4.) agriculture;

5.) information;

6.) financial;

7.) transportation;

8.) distribution.

[OKVision4U]

We simply have to continue the "build it, and they will come" approach. ( ie. Thunder )

1. An Airport that is equal to Denver / Orlando.
2. A Metro Light Rail for all our suburbs. ...and rail from the Airport to the Downtown District.
3. HSR ( High Speed Rail ). YES, we can't just be equal to the others, we need to be in front of the other cities.
4. Energy Tower that all must see... Iconic. 1,500 ft. w/ and WOW!
5. Project 180 needs to be in all the metros.

[gopokes88]

Toyota already had significant operations (office jobs) in Plano and a manufacturing plant in SA. Companies don't throw a dart at a map and oh sweet Memphis looks fun let's go there. It is less risky to pick somewhere that they already have a significant presence. They already know the business climate, whether the employees like living there or not, and which politicians to donate too.

HQ moves are very rare as well.

[adaniel]

We are in a day in age where craptasitc Spirit Airlines is the biggest airline moneymaker so it is safe to say the golden age of air travel is long over.

Once Delta is done completely pulling out of Memphis, the next smallest airline hub is in Salt Lake City, which has about 2.3 million in its CSA. OKC is just under 1.4 million for comparison. No hub is coming to OKC no matter how much $ and improvements are thrown at WRWA on this fact alone.

You play to your strengths. Airport access, while always having room for improvement, will never be a strength in a market this size. And thats okay. We have some issues that need to be worked on but OKC is doing much better than this post suggests.

[KenRagsdale]

Recruitment is a two-edged sword: "How much do we give up?" vs. "What do we get in return?" Many states have discontinued large-scale recruitment in favor of "gardening." "Gardening" entails identifying businesses already located within a state which may be receptive to further growth and expansion.

[adaniel]

Good point.

Look at this way. Of the companies that make up the corporate fabric of OKC (Chesapeake, Devon, Sandridge, Continental, Chapparal, Loves, MidFirst, American Fidelity, BancFirst, etc.) only Continental and SandRidge (when it was still Riata) were not homegrown.

[OKVision4U]

Good point.

Look at this way. Of the companies that make up the corporate fabric of OKC (Chesapeake, Devon, Sandridge, Continental, Chapparal, Loves, MidFirst, American Fidelity, BancFirst, etc.) only Continental and SandRidge (when it was still Riata) were not homegrown.

... and Hobby Lobby.

[adaniel]

Knew I was forgetting one!

[Pete]

Although economic development is booming in OKC, if you really want to make a big investment it should be in education, not airport infrastructure.

We were discussing this on another thread but with the proposed budget cuts, OU will soon be getting only 15% of their funding from the state. That's down from about 40% about 20 years ago.

The only reason OU and OSU have improved is due to private fundraising and building their endowments. But they've also had to raise tuition and fees dramatically which effectively shuts out a lot in-state kids from attending.

Oklahoma is riding high right not but economies are always, always cyclical. I'm old enough to remember the late 70's and early 80's where everyone thought the prosperity would last forever. The local economy is much more diversified now but a collapse in oil & gas would still be devastating.

The time is now to invest in the state's future and you do that by funding education, especially higher education. We should be doing it when things are good, to put us in a better position with things shift, as they always do.

[HangryHippo]

Good luck getting most of Oklahoma's state legislators to go along with that idea though. Slash and burn anything but tax breaks.

[Bunty]

The time is now to invest in the state's future and you do that by funding education, especially higher education. We should be doing it when things are good, to put us in a better position with things shift, as they always do.

But Gov. Fallin bragged on Flashpoint that Oklahoma ranks 18th on funding for higher education. So it's great to have generous donors, such as Pickens. She admitted it's well down in the 40's for lower education. So I suggest public schools try to correct that problem by asking wealthy people for donations.

[Bunty]

Good luck getting most of Oklahoma's state legislators to go along with that idea though. Slash and burn anything but tax breaks.

Legislators seem more concerned about keeping oil exploration companies in the state than education, so they won't go looking for oil elsewhere. Oklahoma oil wells supposedly produce much less than those in some of the other states, so better to keep taxes lower than they do in those other states.

People get back in government who they vote into office. In this more advanced day and age, Oklahoma doesn't need legislators whose outbursts, such as anti-gay ones, embarrass the state.

[bchris02]

Good luck getting most of Oklahoma's state legislators to go along with that idea though. Slash and burn anything but tax breaks.

Or the strictest alcohol and marijuana laws in the nation.

[KenRagsdale]

Oklahoma is not alone in shifting higher education cost from taxpayers to students and parents:

A Truly Devastating Graph on State Higher Education Spending - Jordan Weissmann - The Atlantic

[no1cub17]

Look, as much as we all love OKC, WRWA will never ever have scheduled nonstops to Narita or Nagoya, and that's the end of the Toyota story. I'm sure Toyota "looked at" 100 cities - that's pretty easy to do. I can pull up google maps and look at thousands of cities in a matter of minutes. But Toyota was always going to go somewhere that had nonstops to Japan. I wouldn't at all be shocked to see AA add a DFW-NGO flight after the move is complete. After all, I don't see Toyota execs wanting to deal with a connection (especially at Narita) just to shuttle between HQs.

[gopokes88]

Although economic development is booming in OKC, if you really want to make a big investment it should be in education, not airport infrastructure.

We were discussing this on another thread but with the proposed budget cuts, OU will soon be getting only 15% of their funding from the state. That's down from about 40% about 20 years ago.

The only reason OU and OSU have improved is due to private fundraising and building their endowments. But they've also had to raise tuition and fees dramatically which effectively shuts out a lot in-state kids from attending.

Oklahoma is riding high right not but economies are always, always cyclical. I'm old enough to remember the late 70's and early 80's where everyone thought the prosperity would last forever. The local economy is much more diversified now but a collapse in oil & gas would still be devastating.

The time is now to invest in the state's future and you do that by funding education, especially higher education. We should be doing it when things are good, to put us in a better position with things shift, as they always do.

Just to play devils advocate, more education funding does not instantly equal better schools.

They should be 20th right? No, still near the bottom.
NM 20th in education spending; results still low | Albuquerque Journal News

Culture and expectations play a massive role in education and that's something the government can't address.

[venture]

Oh FFS, not this again. OKC only filled 77% of the available seats last year. Majority of our service is on RJs, but mainline service has been ticking up some. By comparison Austin, which I think is a more logical goal for air service for OKC, filled almost 84% of seats last year. They also have significantly more service and more mainline service than OKC. This year so far they are running about 10 points higher than us already. We need to better utilize what we have if we hope to gain anything in the future. Will there be new hubs? Probably not in the next 10-20 years. We could see more point to point services start up, like what Spirit and Frontier are doing, but those aren't traditional connecting hubs.

Austin has been doing fine growing. They just got British Airways service to London...all without a hub. They also have a local market that supports it and is able to justify the level of service.

[bchris02]

Venture is right. OKC doesn't need a hub to be competitive. However, what it does need is more direct flights to high-profile national and international destinations. Thats where the catch-22 comes in. The flights would not be filled without business activity here to support them, but that type of business will never relocate here unless they have the flights available.

[venture]

Venture is right. OKC doesn't need a hub to be competitive. However, what it does need is more direct flights to high-profile national and international destinations. Thats where the catch-22 comes in. The flights would not be filled without business activity here to support them, but that type of business will never relocate here unless they have the flights available.

At some point people need to realize OKC is not and will not be everything to everyone and there will be some opportunities that it just will never be a good fit for. That doesn't mean there aren't additional opportunities to expand service here, it just means that someone like Toyota is probably going to want Asian connections that simply will never happen here. Wanting OKC to have an airport similar to Orlando or Denver would bankrupt the city. Denver is a freaking mess right now. United can't make money. Frontier is bleeding cash there right now. Southwest is flat growth. That would freaking scare the crap out of me. We don't need to be the next Cincinnati or Pittsburgh with large connecting hubs that are mothballed now. Orlando is just an idiotic comparison due the large amount of leisure travel that inflates their demand.

We've discussed opportunities to the point of exhaustion in the Transportation subforum. The numbers and the fact are out there. There just isn't anything to justify a massive expansion.

[warreng88]

Oh FFS, not this again...

It took me a while to realize what this stood for. When I finally did, I let out a loudly audible "HA!"

[shawnw]

If we still had GM and it was thriving, along with with its associated industry partners that all died when it did, then I'd say we could be in the conversation for another car plant. But now? I don's see us ever getting there again, but that's okay by me. Unless its Google driverless cars we're building, I'm okay with our local economy not being dependent on that industry anymore.

[bchris02]

If we still had GM and it was thriving, along with with its associated industry partners that all died when it did, then I'd say we could be in the conversation for another car plant. But now? I don's see us ever getting there again, but that's okay by me. Unless its Google driverless cars we're building, I'm okay with our local economy not being dependent on that industry anymore.

That's the bad thing about manufacturing in this day and age. It's not a stable industry and a plant can be gone with tens of thousands of laid off workers overnight.