The climate for business development and retention was good last year, says Don Wood, director of the Norman Economic Development Coalition.

Although some bad news cropped up during 2005, the NEDC has made progress in growing business and helping new employers settle in Norman, Wood said.

Presiding over the fourth annual economic summit for “Sooner Centurions” Tuesday, Wood outlined some of last year’s larger accomplishments and plans for building out the Norman Business Park the coalition has developed across Highway 9 from the U.S. Postal Service Center.

The Sooner Centurions, a group of 109 business and government leaders, each contributes $1,000 a year for business development. The money is blended with funds from the City of Norman and the University of Oklahoma to finance NEDC operations.

“The good news is, the business park is near capacity, the tenants are growing and we have plans for expanding to accommodate more business,” Wood said. NEDC efforts resulted in 500 new jobs for Norman last year, he said, and another 500 jobs are expected this year. The Norman Business Park and the University of Oklahoma Research Campus are among only 13 business parks now certified by the Oklahoma Department of Commerce.

Among the high points:

• Two large call centers, the first tenants in the business park, grew substantially last year. Office Max (formerly known as Boise Cascade) completed a 10,000-square-foot expansion last year and doubled employment to 500. Next door, Client Logic also has doubled its workforce to 600.

• The former Saxon Publishers headquarters adjacent to the business park was purchased by a Tulsa group, renamed One Corporate Centre and leased to two tenants recruited by the NEDC. RiskMetrics Group, formerly based in Noble, has 58 employees providing risk analysis services for Wall Street investment firms. Software Development Technologies (SDT), a software testing company providing services for Fortune 500 companies, is creating 200 jobs at Corporate Centre.

• The Norman Business Park, initiated on approximately 116 acres, last year expanded more than 40 percent. NEDC purchased an additional 47 acres formerly owned by Saxon Publishers. The tract will be developed into an upscale office park. “Most companies looking at Norman need an existing building, fully ‘teed up’ and ready to go, so the only thing left to do is move in,” Wood said. NEDC plans to build Class A office space on the new site to lease for about $16.75 a square foot.

• Among other business park tenants, completion is expected in March for Albon Manufacturing Company’s 200,000-square-foot plant that will turn out engine parts for major automotive manufacturers. The plant is expected to employ 200 with an annual payroll of $8.4 million.

• Immuno-Mycologics, Inc., formerly based in Washington, is building a 14,000-square-foot building in the business park. The company develops and markets medical test equipment.

• NEDC’s “Emerging Technology Entrepreneurial Center” (eTec) housed in a building in the Campus Corner shopping district is 95 percent occupied, Wood said. eTec, a business incubator, provides reasonably priced office space and services to startup technology companies.

• Over the past year the NEDC also has made improvements to its Web site, nedc@nedcok.com, and issued a slick “Norman Economic Abstract” designed to attract companies to Norman.

Setbacks last year were tempered by the prospects of replacement jobs and training for displaced workers, Wood said. The sale of Saxon Publishers to Harcourt resulted in the loss of 200 jobs; another 160 jobs were lost with the shutdown of Shaklee by parent company Astellas Pharma. But Astellas is retooling the 300,000-square-foot Shaklee plant, which produced vitamins and supplements, to manufacture pharmaceuticals.

The announced closing of the nearby General Motors assembly plant, effective next month, is another blow to the economy. But $1.4 million in state funds is expected to fund retraining for laid off GM workers. Another $500,000 administered by the Cleveland County Workforce Investment Board is being used to retrain Shaklee and Saxon employees.

Among the challenges this year is maintaining the budget for the NEDC. The city, which puts up $100,000 a year to help fund the coalition, is undergoing a financial strain that could jeopardize the program, Wood said.

Among other challenges, the NEDC is searching for funds to build a $4 million “software development center” in the office park. “Norman is ideally suited to software development,” Wood said. “In India, programmers are paid $25 or $30 an hour. We can hire them all day [for that] in Norman.”
Wood said a 36,000-square-foot building could be built to serve software startup companies.

Extending the half-cent sales tax now funding sewer improvements another four to six months might be one method of funding the software center, Wood said. The center would be managed by the NEDC and cost about $220,000 a year to operate. Such a plan would require voter approval, Wood acknowledges. But, he said, “We need to find the money to build that building.”

For more information, please contact Randall Turk at (405) 366-3547 or by email at
rturk@normantranscript.com

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