A couple of bits, pieces and clarifications:
I remember fondly the Williams Forum, Jeff. It was quite popular for awhile but iirc it became a victim of poor economy and declining population downtown.
It was that, coupled with the fact that Williams (as the building's owner) could fill that whole space with employees/tenants. IIRC, LLDS/WorldCom employees filled that space before they moved out to Cherokee.
It's now totally filled with Williams employees.
However, due to Devon building a new a tower (and leaving of Kerr McGee), downtown OKC added two additional employers and corporate citizens that are nearly equal (off the top of my head) to ONEOK & Williams. Sandridge, which was founded by a former founder of Chesapeake, was set to build a suburban campus similar to Chesapeake prior to the chunk of Kerr McGee & Devon space opening up.
FWIW, SandRidge is much smaller than Williams or ONEOK.
SandRidge is actually roughly the same size (a bit larger) as WPX Energy, the E&P company that Williams just spun off. They both have a market cap of around $3 billion.
For comparsion's sake, Williams' market cap is around $17 billion, and ONEOK is around $15 billion.
And I'm assuming that the other company you're talking about is Continental Resources. They were absolutly a great "get" for OKC, but again - they are much smaller than either Williams or ONEOK. They are more akin to Sampson energy or even a company like Magellan Midstream.
And I certainly wish they would have moved here instead of OKC, but I think with their previous HQ being in Enid, it was going to be a tough sell for them to pick Tulsa over OKC.
Don't let your love of Tulsa keep you from recognizing and appreciating the success OKC has achieved as a result of political, private and corporate cooperation and investment.
Oh - I do think what they have done/are doing is great.
Sure you have Williams and OneOK, but you also have the City (not sure how many they employ), the feds (3 different agencies), Samson and SAIC. Those are just in the Williams towers. And truely most of the new business development is in the small sector which is great. Every business has to start somewhere and I think DownTown has a good mix of big and small.
Don't forget Bank of Oklahoma. They are the largest financial institute in the region with their headquarters downtown. You also have two companies that used to be part of Williams with their headquarters downtown: the aforementioned WPX Energy and Magellan Midstream, which is a pretty good sized midstream company.