[StillwaterTownie]

Bryan is probably the very fastest growing county not in a metro area. The majority of counties are losing people, so there is not many growing. Among what fast growing counties there are, Payne County where Stillwater is, has only grown by 5.69% to 81,175 since 2010, compared to 9.2% for Bryan. From 2016 to 2017 Payne County only added 326 people. It probably reflects a drop in college students and store closures. With flight service to Dallas instigated since 2016, Stillwater should be able to attract more business and industry than it does. Hopefully, things don't end up dropping off and keep it from making the magic 50,000 in pop. by 2020, so it can become Oklahoma's new metro. A current publication put out by the Stillwater Chamber of Commerce says its just gone past that to 50,332.

[Johnhw2]

Originally Posted by KayneMo

Oh I know, I grew up in Durant and visit quite often, and am also Choctaw. I meant that because of the Metroplex's growth, industry have been moving into Durant to be near Dallas but want to be in Oklahoma because of the cheaper business climate. And Durant's proximity to Dallas also supports the casinos and hotels, as 80-90% of the customers are from Texas. There's plans to expand the resort again and to build a third hotel tower, which may very well could be correlated to the Metroplex's growth.

I think most of the Durant and Bryan County growth is driven in some way by proximity to Dallas. The Casino parking lot is full of Texas cars, I know the Choctaw knew to built it and Texans would come. The entertainment they bring in is pretty amazing add to Durant things to do too. I believe the Choctaw Nation moved its HQ to Durant at some point too, the 300k sf HQ recently built to consolidate the staff is just completing I believe. They have made many significant contributions to the community to make it a better place too.

Cardinal Glass, built a 5 acre building to manufacture glass. Its been in Durant perhaps 2 decades and really showed the strength of Durant assets and its economic development player Tommy Kramer and his staff. Before this big jobs producer landed, most all companies locating to the Texoma area landed in Sherman or Denison just across the line in Texas. These two Texas cities were shocked when Durant landed this gem. I understand N Texas cities offered to build the significant water tower needed for this operation, Durant reportedly landed them without doing so. Denison and Sherman economic development came to visit with Kramer and his staff after this one landed north of the red river.

Big Lots built a warehouse facility near the Casino (perhaps it came before I cant remember as I was off living in Houston at the time). Other businesses like Atlas Stone, owned by someone out of Singaore took over an empty facility and conducts business from OKC to Dallas as a supplier or Granite and other such material. So location was a key factor in these two jobs gems.

Currently CMC is building a steel recycling facility in Durant. Its a half a Billion investment which uses electricity to melt scrap steel to make rebar, you guessed it for road and building use from DFW to KC. The amount of electricity used in this plant will make it the second largest electricity consumer in Oklahoma. 5 cities in Oklahoma as well as cities in 5 other states pursued this job provider. CMC is an Irving Texas based steel company. The Choctaw's contributed funds to help Durant buy the bundle of the land needed for this operation. They will benefit from 100 trucks a day coming and going to the plant as they own Truck stops that will be impacted.

Durant has some much business with the DFW metro that Durant is part of the DFW extended metropolitan area now. It seems to act like a distant suburb of Dallas not very closely tied to OKC and Tulsa business wise. You notice you are in Oklahoma though once you pass across the red river from Texas. The city has had good leadership and visionaries and people able to get this all to happen.

The workforce in Durant is part of the draw along with the lower cost of operations in Oklahoma while being near Texas demand for things. A win win as far as I am concerned.