By Carol Cole-Frowe
The Norman Transcript

The Norman Economic Development Coalition is working on plans for an office park that would feature “world-class, Class A” office space and the ability to taxi a corporate aircraft up to a hangar at the complex and just northwest of Max Westheimer Airport.

The aviation-friendly University North Park Corporate Centre would be a 900,000-square-foot, 60-acre office park, accented with a central water feature. It would be north of Rock Creek Road, east of Interstate 35 and west of Max Westheimer Airport NEDC executive director Don Wood discussed details of the office park Tuesday at the annual Sooner Centurion Economic Summit at the J.D. McCarty Center.

“They would be able to taxi right out of corporate headquarters,” Wood said. “There’s not another project like it.”

He said NEDC is not necessarily chasing smokestacks but high-tech, high-paying positions.

“The kinds of jobs that Norman wants are white-collar, computer-driven, leading-technology type jobs,” he said. “Where those jobs are locating are in office parks.”

The six-building complex would be required to be designed with similar architectural styles and materials. Rick McKinney of the McKinney Partnership is the architect for the project.

“This would be a fabulous working environment,” Wood said. “This is something you’ll all be proud of.”

Four of the six buildings are tentatively spoken for by new or existing companies, Wood said. Two of those potential purchasers have or are in the process of acquiring corporate aircraft.

He said one company they are negotiating with would create about 300 new jobs.

In order to qualify for the park, new employers would create jobs exceeding 150 percent of the average county per capita income of $23,339, with a benefit package that includes employer-contributed health insurance.

Existing Norman employers would be eligible to purchase a site at incentive pricing if they plan to create significant new job growth over the next two to five years equal to at least 35 percent of the current level of employment.

“We have companies here that are on the verge of major expansions and major growth,” he said. “We are competing trying to keep those companies in our community,” Wood said.

The 60 acres was made available to the NEDC as a representative of the City of Norman by the University of Oklahoma Foundation, as a part of the City’s approval of the $54.7 million University North Park Tax Increment Financing District No. 2.

“The availability of the 60 acres would not have been possible without the TIF,” Wood said.

The site was to be used for Norman’s economic development to attract or keep good jobs here.

“We’re dancing a real fine line here. On the one side, we don’t want to compete with private developers and take them out of the market. But on the other side, we have to help a new company or an expanding local company stay in our community. And these companies are looking for some level of assistance. We don’t have a line of public assistance where we can write them a check,” Wood said.

He said the pattern they are using for the UNP Corporate Centre developed with the Norman Business Park, which attracted and nurtured businesses coming to Norman.

“We were able to make that land available to those companies coming to the community … at a very attractive rate,” Wood said. “And that’s their incentive to build and stay in Norman, Oklahoma.”

He said he would be able to announce those companies that would go in the park whenever they’ve concluded negotiations.

“The local companies are in a hurry,” he said.

The office park is scheduled to be considered Feb. 14 by the Norman Planning Commission, and in March by the City Council. Site improvements are expected to begin in April.

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