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If the last two years have taught us anything, it’s the importance of being adaptable in the face of uncertainty.

While no one was certain what 2021 would mean for the economy, Tulsa’s Future made the strategic decision to pivot to a one-year work plan to address the region’s most urgent needs for economic recovery. Tulsa’s Future: Road to Recovery supported existing businesses while attracting new employers and transformative projects to the region.

Thanks to the City of Tulsa, Tulsa County, our 200 private investors, and numerous regional and tribal partners, our region is on a strong path toward recovery. In 2021, we worked with existing businesses to support economic stability, we attracted major employers and high-paying jobs to northeast Oklahoma, and we engaged the next generation of diverse talent.

Our hard work paid off, and the results speak for themselves. Some significant projects include Canoo’s $400 million, 400-acre micro-megafactory at MidAmerica Industrial Park; RadNet’s customer operations center, which will employ up to 500 people; TAT Technologies and Limco’s addition of 300 jobs; Whirlpool’s $16 million expansion at the company’s factory distribution center; and Seattle-based ClearSign Technologies’ headquarters relocation to Tulsa.

None of these accomplishments would have been possible without the support of our partners. We appreciate your support of regional economic prosperity in times of adversity.

As we look at the road ahead, we’re optimistic about what’s to come. Thank you for helping us build a better future for northeast Oklahoma.

Tulsa’s Future: Road to Recovery aided in economic recovery while also bringing new investment to the region. In 2021, Tulsa’s Future and its partners:

  • Supported the creation of 4,125 jobs.
  • Brought $421 million of capital investment to northeast Oklahoma.
  • Announced a $400 million investment and up to 2,000 new jobs from EV startup Canoo.
  • Added 2,300 electric vehicle technology and advanced manufacturing jobs.
  • Supported the creation of 3,301 jobs with an average salary of more than $50,000.
  • Engaged 230 interns through Campus Tulsa.
  • Provided business, retention and expansion assistance to more than 75 companies in the region.
  • Provided externship opportunities to 20 Black Tulsa-area high school students through Tulsa’s NextGEN Talent.
  • Hosted 45 site visits from prospective companies.

Supporting Existing Business and Economic Recovery

Through Tulsa’s Future: Road to Recovery, the Chamber focused on doing everything it could to support existing businesses in the region by providing the resources and support to retain as many jobs and workers as possible. This was accomplished through the Chamber’s talent attraction and retention, and business retention and expansion (BRE) efforts.

In conjunction with the Mayor’s Economic Recovery Advisory Committee, the Chamber conducted a dislocated workforce analysis to better understand the outlook for workers dislocated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which skill sets are available in the regional talent pipeline, what is needed to retrain and rehire these dislocated workers, and how to best position northeast Oklahoma’s workforce to compete in the future job market. The analysis was conducted by labor market analytics firm Emsi in partnership with the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL). The findings were shared with workforce training organizations, educational institutions and area employers to help them effectively and efficiently transition dislocated workers to high-demand jobs.

Additionally, the Chamber reached out to more than 400 existing businesses and assisted more than 75 companies in the region. The economic development team met with businesses from all industries, including advanced manufacturing, aerospace, information technology and professional services. The dislocated workforce analysis found the manufacturing industry was the sector most impacted by the pandemic, so 40% of existing company visits were with area manufacturers.

Tulsa’s economy showed strong signs of recovery as the year went on, and several area companies celebrated growth.

TAT Technologies, the parent company of Tulsa-based Limco Airepair, announced it will relocate its thermal components activities to Tulsa, establish a global research development center at its Tulsa campus, and expand operations at Limco. The combined relocation and expansion will create more than 300 jobs.

Additional expansion projects included a $16 million expansion at Whirlpool’s factory distribution center, the addition of 170 jobs at L3 Harris Technologies, and Amazon’s warehouse distribution and sorting center — the company’s third facility in the region.

While not formally announced until January 2022, Tulsa's Future also worked with ClearSign Technologies, a growing emission-control technology company, to grow its presence in Tulsa and relocate its headquarters from Seattle.

Attracting New Industry

Despite the ongoing effects of the pandemic, Tulsa’s Future saw the largest uptick in economic development activity to date in 2021.

According to the 2020 Census results released in 2021, the Tulsa metro officially reached the 1 million population threshold, marking a significant milestone for the region. This population size puts our region in a new category for economic development projects while our costs of living and doing business remain lower than most other large cities. This milestone, along with Tulsa’s increased national publicity and the Chamber’s outreach efforts, played a role in the 99 external leads and proposals Tulsa’s Future received and the 45 site visits for prospective companies hosted in 2021.

Capitalizing on our region’s strong foundation of manufacturing and aerospace, Tulsa’s Future and its partners saw an opportunity to compete in emerging industries such as automotive technology and advanced aerial mobility.

Building upon Tulsa’s public pursuit of Tesla, the Northeast Oklahoma Automotive Corridor was formed. The automotive corridor positions the region as the nation’s next automotive manufacturing hub and highlights the nine megasites across the region and the around 4,000 acres available to automotive manufacturers.

The automotive corridor celebrated a major win in June when Los Angeles-based electric vehicle manufacturer Canoo announced it will build a 400-acre campus at MidAmerica Industrial Park in Pryor. Several partners were involved in the project, including MidAmerica Industrial Park, the Cherokee Nation and the Oklahoma Department of Commerce.

Canoo’s micro-megafactory is a $400 million investment that will support up to 2,000 high-skilled, high-paying jobs when fully operational. The campus will include a full commercialization facility with a paint and body shop and general assembly plant as well as a low-volume industrialization facility. Canoo furthered its investment later in the year when the company announced it will also locate a technology hub and software development center in the region. The centers will support an additional 375 jobs, and Canoo is working with the George Kaiser Family Foundation to support a diverse, skilled workforce.

Tulsa's Future attracted another Los Angeles-based, publicly-traded company to the region in November. RadNet, a national leader in outpatient diagnostic imaging services, announced it was locating a customer operations center at the Eastgate Metroplex in Tulsa. The company has more than 8,300 employees and 353 imaging centers nationwide, and the Tulsa customer operations center will employ up to 500 people.

Supporting the Next Generation of Talent

A highly skilled talent pool is critical to northeast Oklahoma’s success. To grow the talent pool, we must build a strong, equitable talent pipeline by engaging with students of all ages and showcasing the career opportunities available to them.

To support diverse talent and career exploration, the Chamber partnered with Sen. Kevin Matthews and Tulsa Public Schools to launch Tulsa’s NextGEN Talent (TNT). This initiative provides externship opportunities to African American high school students at Tulsa-area schools. The program connects a diverse group of students to business leaders and career opportunities in the region before they leave for college.

The inaugural TNT program hosted a cohort of 20 local high school students for three weeks in June. Students completed professional development, job shadowing and an externship with an area employer.

To better engage college interns, the Chamber, along with the George Kaiser Family Foundation and the City of Tulsa, launched Campus Tulsa. Campus Tulsa seeks to increase the number of college graduates who stay in Tulsa by helping students build strong connections to the Tulsa region during internship experiences.

Throughout the summer, Campus Tulsa hosted professional development opportunities and interns-only events and engaged 230 interns in its first year. Campus Tulsa also had 40 area businesses sign up as employer partners.

The Road Ahead

While we celebrate where we’ve been and what we’ve accomplished together, we’re also looking ahead at what our region could be in the next 20 years. As we launch the next phase of Tulsa’s Future, we’re excited to continue moving our region forward.

By leveraging the strengths of all partners and collaborating, we are focused on accentuating our existing industry strengths and capitalizing on emerging trends. We will accomplish this through a strategic combination of business retention and expansion, business attraction and workforce development.

Our success is made possible by Tulsa’s Future investors and regional partners, and we thank you for your ongoing support of regional economic prosperity.

We hope you’ll join us as we accelerate toward the future.

Thank you to our regional partners and our corporate investors for their generous support of northeast Oklahoma’s economic prosperity.