Lawton ready to reap benefits of having land ready for development

Lawton will reap the benefits of a new reality in economic development: it has land ready for development.

And local economic development officials are almost ready to reveal the name of a new development that will bring a $20 million investment and 110 new jobs.

Brad Cooksey, president of the Lawton Economic Development Authority (LEDC), shared those tidbits last week during LEDC’s annual luncheon, an event to highlight the preceding year of economic development activity. While attention has been focused on Westwin Elements, the cobalt/nickel refinery that is expected to break ground on a pilot plant in southwest Lawton sometime soon, other projects have been marching toward the finish line, Cooksey said.

One is making use of land LEDC holds adjacent to the runway of Lawton-Fort Sill Regional Airport in south Lawton. While officials can’t yet reveal the name of that prospect, Cooksey said LEDC is under contract with a development for 15-16 acres near the airport for a 125,000-square-foot building as part of a $20 million investment that will create 110 jobs.

It’s all part of the package that makes Lawton an attractive target for industrial development: available land. Cooksey said today’s economic development climate is changing around the fact there is a shortage of industrial sites in the nation’s largest cities.

“Not here in Lawton, Oklahoma,” he said, adding Lawton economic development entities have a combined total of 1,000 acres they can offer north and south of the already-established west industrial park, along with another 60 acres adjacent to the airport.

Cooksey said the growing need for industrial sites is why Lawton officials have been investing in their land, to ensure it is more attractive to prospects.

“We have something to offer that others can’t,” he said, adding industrial prospects have begun looking seriously at smaller communities because larger cities have less land available.

That doesn’t mean Lawton is resting on its laurels. Cooksey said LEDC has continued to change its approach as economic development evolves. For example, those searching for new industry and business are seeing business prospects with “a lot of remote workers,” meaning office fronts aren’t as important — or large — as they once were.

“We’re exploring ways to incentivize that,” Cooksey said, adding while firms may be smaller and the local jobs they create less, capital investment is greater.

Addressing the City Council last week, Cooksey said locals also have invested in the land they hold on the community’s west side — “We’ve got that land ready to go” — and continue to support the FISTA Innovation Park, which is planning to build more space as it continues to attract new defense contractors. Cooksey said LEDC and other economic development entities also support the industry Lawton already has, helping those entities to assess their challenges and opportunities related to expansion.

“That one unified approach makes a huge difference in what we do,” he said.