Massive new car factory for Pryor

[Laramie]

Opening date pushed back a year for Canoo EV:

Oklahoma has bet big on the EV startup Canoo Inc., offering hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives, plus a no-bid contract for state agencies to buy up to 1,000 vehicles, but the company has pushed back the projected opening date for an Oklahoma factory to 2024...

The Frontier:  https://www.readfrontier.org/stories/oklahomas-big-bet-on-an-electric-vehicle-startup/

[Laramie]

Breaking News:  

Lost Ogle:  Hearing rumors that Pansonic has told Stitt and Co. that Oklahoma has been chosen as the home for the company's new billion-dollar battery facility. No clue if it's true or not, but if so, you heard it heard first! If not, never mind.

https://twitter.com/thelostogle/status/1514732135613087753?s=21&t=FTdxF-z3prmVtAjRmD03OA

  Tulsa is on its way to becoming the next boom-town.

[LandArchPoke]

https://www.newson6.com/story/625d9a91c48e3e072000eadc/governor-stitt-to-announce-major-economic-development-opportunity

Looks like Panasonic is being announced soon.

Stitt called the press conference but "can't name the company" lol. The press conference is basically to put the legislature on the spot to pass the economic incentives bills for investments over $1 billion. Sounds like Panasonic has said if you all pass the bills we will locate in Oklahoma, if not, we're going to Kansas. He's basically said they need to pass the bills by next Monday.

I found it really interesting that Kian Kamas (TAEO) and Mike Neal (Tulsa Chamber) are there and he pointed them out. Makes me wonder if Panasonic is going to have some offices in Tulsa too in addition to the plant in MAIP. MAIP reps were there as well.  

[ComeOnBenjals]

What're the odds the Legislature passes the bills? Don't really follow these things closely.

[Jeff P]

What're the odds the Legislature passes the bills? Don't really follow these things closely.

I would assume it's an easy pass with the GOP supermajority, but that's just an assumption on my part. I don't follow that closely either.

[LandArchPoke]

What're the odds the Legislature passes the bills? Don't really follow these things closely.

Part but not all of what Stitt wanted passed through Senate & House committee this evening and should be voted on and approved soon.

I have a feeling Panasonic got pissed the legislature is dragging their feet on this while passing a bunch of nonsense abortion bills and other things while ignoring this. Typical of Republicans, let's ignore the biggest economic development project in the history of the state then campaign on how "great" they are to the economy.

"Labeled Project Ocean, the proposal targets 588 acres inside MAIP in Pryor. If OK’d, the TIF would last a maximum of 12 years, creating up to 6,000 new direct jobs, 1,200 indirect jobs, 16,000 new housing units and a population increase of 18,000 within a 45-minute commute of the park, according to the project plan." They are estimating the TIF to be worth around $300 million.

^ Some of those projections seem low to me like the population. If they expect that to create 16,000 new housing units then that would be around 35,000 population based on average household sizes in this area. If you combine this with Canoo and what's likely to be other suppliers or other companies interested just because Panasonic felt it was a good enough location, you could easily see 60,000-75,000 new people settle in that area in the next 7-10 years.

Panasonic's North American HQ is in New Jersey, I wonder if we'd be able to entice them to relocate that office to Tulsa - wonder if that might have been why TAEO & Tulsa Chamber were there. Just hopeful thinking on that. Not even sure how big their North America HQ office is employee wise. 

[ComeOnBenjals]

Glad to hear that^. I would be livid if the Legislature was a holdup on this project.

16,000 housing units is absolutely insane. Could be the biggest shot in the Tulsa Metro's arm in 80 years. Let's get crazy and start planning some light rail out East from Tulsa Proper.

[DowntownDan]

I seriously hate this corporate welfare crap, but I guess it's necessary, especially in this part of the country.

[LandArchPoke]

I seriously hate this corporate welfare crap, but I guess it's necessary, especially in this part of the country.

I'm not either, but it's a game we have to play if we want to land anything major. They aren't proposing anything different than what Texas, Kansas, etc. are all doing around us so it's either match it or be left in the dust. Lesser of two evils to me at least is match it and take the jobs and population growth because we are at an inflection point particularly with energy in the US and we don't have a lot of time to play around with trying to diversify our economy away from non-renewals energy. So this is an important step forward for the Tulsa MSA just like getting American Airlines was decades ago for building up an aerospace sector here.

[Red Arrow]

Let's get crazy and start planning some light rail out East from Tulsa Proper.

Let's at least get the ROW while the cost is merely outrageous, not yet stupid crazy.

[tulsabug]

I'm not either, but it's a game we have to play if we want to land anything major. They aren't proposing anything different than what Texas, Kansas, etc. are all doing around us so it's either match it or be left in the dust. Lesser of two evils to me at least is match it and take the jobs and population growth because we are at an inflection point particularly with energy in the US and we don't have a lot of time to play around with trying to diversify our economy away from non-renewals energy. So this is an important step forward for the Tulsa MSA just like getting American Airlines was decades ago for building up an aerospace sector here.

It'd be nice if they would have passed a matching bill with similar funding and tax breaks to help small business development.


Oh who am I kidding! 

[ComeOnBenjals]

https://tulsaworld.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/watch-now-house-oks-up-to-698m-economic-incentive-package/article_58a78530-c000-11ec-9dbc-0f0042d50fc1.html#tracking-source=home-top-story

House OKs up to $698M economic incentive package

Really sounds like there are multiple companies in the mix here....

"The remaining $85 million would be available to an unnamed second, “separate establishment,” referred to as “Player 2” in explanations of the program. Player 2 would have to invest $500 million to be eligible."


Some good quotes from legislatures: “Every other commercial on the Super Bowl was an electric vehicle commercial,” he continued. “Whether you support electric vehicles, whether you oppose electric vehicles, whatever your stance is on that, it doesn’t matter. That’s where the industry is going. … The electric vehicle industry is growing, and we have a chance to be at the front and center.”

Also some not so good ones: "Rep. Wendi Stearman, R-Collinsville, answered promises of jobs, growth and economic diversification by saying, “I don’t want Oklahoma to change, and the majority of my constituents do not want Oklahoma to change.”" 

[tulsabug]

https://tulsaworld.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/watch-now-house-oks-up-to-698m-economic-incentive-package/article_58a78530-c000-11ec-9dbc-0f0042d50fc1.html#tracking-source=home-top-story

House OKs up to $698M economic incentive package

Really sounds like there are multiple companies in the mix here....

"The remaining $85 million would be available to an unnamed second, “separate establishment,” referred to as “Player 2” in explanations of the program. Player 2 would have to invest $500 million to be eligible."


Some good quotes from legislatures: “Every other commercial on the Super Bowl was an electric vehicle commercial,” he continued. “Whether you support electric vehicles, whether you oppose electric vehicles, whatever your stance is on that, it doesn’t matter. That’s where the industry is going. … The electric vehicle industry is growing, and we have a chance to be at the front and center.”

Also some not so good ones: "Rep. Wendi Stearman, R-Collinsville, answered promises of jobs, growth and economic diversification by saying, “I don’t want Oklahoma to change, and the majority of my constituents do not want Oklahoma to change.”"  

Oh - bless her heart.

[Tulsan]

https://tulsaworld.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/watch-now-house-oks-up-to-698m-economic-incentive-package/article_58a78530-c000-11ec-9dbc-0f0042d50fc1.html#tracking-source=home-top-story

House OKs up to $698M economic incentive package

Really sounds like there are multiple companies in the mix here....

"The remaining $85 million would be available to an unnamed second, “separate establishment,” referred to as “Player 2” in explanations of the program. Player 2 would have to invest $500 million to be eligible."

Its Canoo… additional incremental subsidies if they expand more than originally planned.

[LandArchPoke]

Its Canoo… additional incremental subsidies if they expand more than originally planned.

Idea too is that this will allow them to go after lots of others. Last I heard from the Commerce department is they have 100 active companies looking to expand or move operations to NE Oklahoma. I doubt Panasonic is the only one. We also missed out on a large Ford EV factory as well recently and were one of the top 3 sites for it primarily because of the Tesla campaign. I know it got a lot of ridicule from press and others but I think it really opened the door for us in a lot of other areas. I don't think many were under any impression we'd be able to pry Tesla away from Austin and were really a back up in case incentives there stalled or got blocked. That was really about an audition and press exposure to everyone else globally about what Tulsa is about.