Tesla's Big F***ing Field

[SXSW]

I would think Tulsa and Nashville would the at the top of the list for future expansion after the G5 plant is built in Texas.  Just like Austin was passed over for Reno for G1 but was a finalist that helped them eventually land a factory.

Tesla Factory: Fremont, CA
G1: Reno, NV
G2: Buffalo, NY
G3: Shanghai, China
G4: Berlin, Germany
G5: Austin, TX
G6: ??

Musk disclosed the highly anticipated decision at the start of the company's earnings call while thanking officials in Tulsa, Oklahoma who also aggressively courted the automaker. Musk said he was "super impressed" by the economic development team and Governor Stitt and will consider Tulsa for other opportunities "down the road."

https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/austin-wins-teslas-new-factory-musk-thanks-tulsa

[heironymouspasparagus]

I would think Tulsa and Nashville would the at the top of the list for future expansion after the G5 plant is built in Texas.  Just like Austin was passed over for Reno for G1 but was a finalist that helped them eventually land a factory.

Tesla Factory: Fremont, CA
G1: Reno, NV
G2: Buffalo, NY
G3: Shanghai, China
G4: Berlin, Germany
G5: Austin, TX
G6: ??

https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/austin-wins-teslas-new-factory-musk-thanks-tulsa

Probably Nashville area first - they have several other automakers nearby and can poach some people already trained.  Then us, maybe.

[SXSW]

Probably Nashville area first - they have several other automakers nearby and can poach some people already trained.  Then us, maybe.

They will likely need an additional battery plant in the central U.S.  The Southeast as a whole is better suited for auto manufacturing with the existing companies there (Nissan and VW in Tennessee, Mercedes in Alabama, BMW in South Carolina, etc). But none of those states were finalists except Tennessee until the search was narrowed to Tulsa and Austin.

[Laramie]

Disappointed in Tesla's decision to select Austin; however not surprised. 

Reminds me of OKC pitch to land a United Airlines maintenance facility years ago when Indianapolis was selected.  We had a much better incentive package put together by then Mayor Ron Norick.  Ron was later told that Indianapolis had a better standard of living and quality of life as their being selected.   They had NFL, NBA franchises and the infamous Indianapolis '500 at the motor speedway in their city and a host of arts and cultural related venues.   That led to the birth of OKC Metropolitan Area Projects (MAPS) initiatives to improve on the standing of living and quality of life issues.   The Bricktown Ballpark, Chesapeake Energy Arena, Bricktown Canal, North Canadian Riverfront Development and upgrades to aging city structures like Civic Center Music Hall needing attention.

Tulsa has a lot of positives that they can take away from the Tesla's decision.  Continue with that relentless pursuit, the same attitude that landed the American Airline Maintenance facility to Tulsa and other important drivers of your local economy.  Most importantly is to continue to take care of the existing businesses you have in your economy.  Focus on some smaller support and satellite businesses and the higher hanging fruit will eventually come.

Oklahoma Quality Jobs Program is still in place; it rewards job expansion and creation; therefore the firms and businesses you have now are your greatest assets.

[heironymouspasparagus]

They will likely need an additional battery plant in the central U.S.  The Southeast as a whole is better suited for auto manufacturing with the existing companies there (Nissan and VW in Tennessee, Mercedes in Alabama, BMW in South Carolina, etc). But none of those states were finalists except Tennessee until the search was narrowed to Tulsa and Austin.

Great....(sarcastically)....just what we need - another battery plant here.  As if Picher wasn't bad enough... What new part of the state can we render uninhabitable next?  Between lead and big oil, just try to get a decent water well in NE Oklahoma!

[LandArchPoke]

I've seen a lot of stories like these lately... let's hope this turns into some good news over the next year and we can build on some momentum.

From Costar News:

Promise of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Real Estate Emerges in Tesla Factory Site Search
Low Cost of Living Could Be a Lure for Companies

Three reasons why Tulsa stands out involve industrial real estate, a property type that has surged in demand as more consumers shop online and create a need for added logistics centers and warehouses. While Tesla ultimately decided to build a plant in Austin, Texas, it was lured by forces that led industrial real estate in Tulsa, even with 1 million fewer people in the surrounding region than Austin, to grow to 108 million square feet of space to surpass Austin's 107 million square feet, according to CoStar data.

That industrial real estate is less than half the price in Tulsa than it is in Austin, and Tulsa is outpacing its Texas rival for new construction of that property type. Real estate professionals say the presence of far more industrial real estate per capita, and at a far lower cost, in Tulsa than in high-profile Austin shows Oklahoma's second-largest city is primed for manufacturing growth. It also helps explain why Tulsa came down to the wire after Tesla initially looked at eight centrally located U.S. states to house its $1 billion, 4 million- to 5 million-square-foot manufacturing plant, a site that's expected eventually to create 5,000 jobs to make the Model Y and Cybertruck.

Tesla's interest in Tulsa confirms the city's desirability for large-scale advanced manufacturing projects and, even though historically dominated by the oil and gas industry, an ability to diversify its industries, said Chris Schwinden, a senior vice president who leads the industrial business for the Dallas-based Site Selection Group advisory firm.

"If you look at its location in the south central United States, it makes a lot of sense that big companies want to be there," said Schwinden, who's familiar with the region but isn't involved in Tulsa deals. "Tulsa is a really strong manufacturing market with robust training programs and a strong pipeline of labor. Tulsa is a Goldilocks-type of market that's big enough to satisfy hiring needs and not too big in which a company might have to deal with traffic congestion and other issues that pop up in larger cities."

"Tulsa has flown under the radar for quite some time and Tesla's interest has brought the city to the forefront in terms of growth and quality of life," Hendershot said in an interview.

Developers in Tulsa don't tend to build large amounts of speculative industrial buildings as they do across the Red River in Texas. Instead, Oklahoma developers tend to wait to have a tenant in tow before beginning construction, he said.

That patience paid off with Tulsa landing a four-story, 2.56 million-square-foot Amazon e-commerce hub near the Muscogee Creek Nation that Hendershot said was "the crowning jewel of the decade for Tulsa," with a lot of land to do more deals. For real estate investors, Tulsa, which Hendershot says is like Austin a decade ago, can be seen as a bargain compared to the capital city of Texas, which ranked No. 1 in the nation for commercial real estate prospects and demand this year, according to the Urban Land Institute's annual survey.

Tulsa is a "really big small town" with growth potential because of what he calls business-friendly atmosphere and economic development help from the surrounding tribes in Oklahoma, said Schwinden.

"The tribal participation in economic development in Tulsa and, more broadly in Oklahoma, can be a big advantage for companies," Schwinden said in an interview. "It's a little bit of the secret sauce as it relates to economic development in Oklahoma being positioned to win big deals."

Native American tribes helped bring some big names to Oklahoma with the Cherokee Nation and the Muscogee Creek Nation being part of a larger coalition in helping e-commerce giant Amazon expand its presence in Tulsa. Years ago, the Cherokee Nation brought a half million dollars of economic incentives to a deal to bring a 1.2 million-square-foot distribution center for Macy's to Tulsa.

For potential employers, Schwinden said Tulsa could be a "surprisingly cool" choice with an arts and museum and culinary scene. City leaders created the Tulsa Remote program in 2018 to lure diverse young professionals with remote jobs by giving them up to $10,000 and office space in coworking locations. The program is funded by the George Kaiser Family Foundation, which recently donated $50 million to develop workforce development programs in Tulsa targeting jobs in energy technology, virtual health, drones, cybertechnology and data analytics.

As part of the $50 million investment, the Holberton School, a coding academy in San Francisco, is expected to open its third U.S. campus in Tulsa in early 2021. Billionaire George Kaiser made his money in oil and gas and banking and he opened The Gathering Place, a 66-acre park in Tulsa that's the largest public park in the country built with private funds, in 2018.

Several high-profile tech companies are planning a permanent work-from-home setup because of the pandemic and Tulsa might be a draw for workers and employers looking to exit big city life and rents, Schwinden said. For investors, this could be a good time to prepare for what is expected to be a bigger future for the city.

"There's an opportunity for Tulsa to better prepare with the help of developers, investors and especially the local community, which can play a big role in these industrial parks," Schwinden added.

Social media giant Facebook plans to hire remote employees in areas such as Dallas, Denver and Atlanta and pay them salaries based on their location, a move that could save Facebook a substantial amount considering the average annual tech salary in its hometown in Silicon Valley is $136,060, the highest in the nation, according to CBRE.

Growth Potential

Tulsa ranked as one of the 25 smaller markets to watch this year for growth potential for fostering tech talent development, according to CBRE's Scoring Tech Talent report. Tulsa had 13,040 tech workers in 2019, up 34% over the past year, with an average salary of $77,701, according to CBRE. Austin, meanwhile, ranked No. 6 on the report out of large markets and had 76,270 tech jobs in 2019, up 16.7% since 2014, paying an average annual salary of $95,416, according to CBRE.

Still, Tulsa has a high concentration of energy companies and is expected to be hurt by low oil prices. Energy companies have been hesitant to add jobs back, and consolidation and closings are disrupting Tulsa's office sector, according to a CoStar market analytics report.

And Austin's commercial real estate growth in the past decade has an edge over Tulsa in terms of two high-profile cultural factors: The Austin music scene is so strong it fostered the television program and festival Austin City Limits, which gave that city a national profile. Austin also is home to the well-known University of Texas at Austin, which provides so much trained technology workers that global companies like Google, Facebook and Apple have opened offices in the city. Those names often result in smaller tech companies popping up in the same area.

Even so, Tesla's Musk said on an earnings call last week when it posted its fourth consecutive quarter of positive profits that the Fortune 500 company will consider Tulsa for future expansions. That "bodes well for the future" of the city, said Bill Murphy, who oversaw economic development for the Tulsa Regional Chamber during the Tesla search. He now holds a deputy secretary role with the Kansas Department of Commerce.

"This reflects the community at large really put forward a positive image of the state and the community and we were able to compete with a world class city like Austin," Murphy said in an interview. "To have Elon Musk mention your city in an earnings call is every economic developer's dream."

As far as proceeding on any immediate large-scale development, the Tulsa area has three sites ready to go. MidAmerica Industrial Park is a business area involved in large industrial deals with tenant companies such as DuPont and Google, officials said.

Other sites being heavily marketed by Tulsa leaders include the Peoria Mohawk Business Park, an industrial area developed by the George Kaiser Family Foundation and the city of Tulsa in a partnership to drive business to north Tulsa, and the Claremore Industrial Park in Claremore, Oklahoma. Other sites near Tulsa, including in Broken Arrow and Muskogee, are also development possibilities.

Justin McLaughlin, executive vice president and chief operating officer for the Tulsa Regional Chamber, said finding large industrial development areas across the country can be difficult, but the Tulsa region has several "shovel ready" sites ready to go.

"You don't get looked at for these large projects unless you have the sites," said McLaughlin, who also is interim senior vice president for economic development, in an interview. "This put us on the radar screen with consultants and now there's a lot of information out there on us."

Murphy agrees, adding "this kind of publicity will pay dividends for another couple of months to a year."

[LandArchPoke]

Then this one from the Tulsa World today about CBRE's Tech Talent report which is the 2nd most downloaded report that they produce (it's a reoccurring report they produce):

https://tulsaworld.com/business/tulsa-ranked-as-promising-north-american-tech-talent-market-by-national-real-estate-firm/article_062b9c00-ba0e-5c1b-8145-06b3462e7f06.html

Tulsa has been listed as an "up-and-coming" North American tech-talent market, according to national commercial real estate services company CBRE.

Tulsa joined Oklahoma City on CBRE's Scoring Tech Talent Report, which rates 75 U.S. and Canadian markets according to their ability to attract and expand tech talent.

Up-and-coming markets are separate from the 50 larger tech markets CBRE lists. In that secondary group, Tulsa ranked 15th overall, with its tech labor force growing by 34% to about 13,040 area tech employees in a recent five-year period. Tech salaries in Tulsa also have steadily increased, with total wage growth rising by 12% over that same span, according to the report.

Ranked No. 17 on the next 25 list, Oklahoma City saw its tech talent labor force grow 7% over five years to a total tech employment of 19,540 employees. Tech wages have also increased by 13 percent since 2014.

The up-and-coming markets were ranked by a narrower set of criteria than the top 50, including tech talent supply, wages, tech-talent concentration, recent tech talent growth rates and outlook.

[SXSW]

I've been saying this for years and those that have been on this forum awhile are probably rolling their eyes: invest in higher education and it will pay dividends.  That is the missing ingredient Tulsa needs to take the next step.  The University of Tulsa, even as a private institution, should be leading the way and expanding.  They need to be more like a Vanderbilt or TCU.  And OSU and OU-Tulsa need to be full 4 year universities with residential campuses in their respective parts of town (Greenwood for OSU and midtown for OU).  

OSU Health Sciences/OSU Med Center/VA Hospital should be a medical complex on par with OU's in OKC.  And OSU should have all of its research programs and facilities in Tulsa.  The flagship undergraduate campus will always be in Stillwater but the bulk of graduate programs as well as undergrad programs in engineering, science, technology and business should be offered in Tulsa.  Look no further than Nebraska for how to operate a flagship campus (UNL) as well as an urban research campus (UNO) or the University of Colorado with Boulder and Denver.

[Oil Capital]

I've seen a lot of stories like these lately... let's hope this turns into some good news over the next year and we can build on some momentum.

From Costar News:

Promise of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Real Estate Emerges in Tesla Factory Site Search
Low Cost of Living Could Be a Lure for Companies

Three reasons why Tulsa stands out involve industrial real estate, a property type that has surged in demand as more consumers shop online and create a need for added logistics centers and warehouses. While Tesla ultimately decided to build a plant in Austin, Texas, it was lured by forces that led industrial real estate in Tulsa, even with 1 million fewer people in the surrounding region than Austin, to grow to 108 million square feet of space to surpass Austin's 107 million square feet, according to CoStar data.

That industrial real estate is less than half the price in Tulsa than it is in Austin, and Tulsa is outpacing its Texas rival for new construction of that property type. Real estate professionals say the presence of far more industrial real estate per capita, and at a far lower cost, in Tulsa than in high-profile Austin shows Oklahoma's second-largest city is primed for manufacturing growth. It also helps explain why Tulsa came down to the wire after Tesla initially looked at eight centrally located U.S. states to house its $1 billion, 4 million- to 5 million-square-foot manufacturing plant, a site that's expected eventually to create 5,000 jobs to make the Model Y and Cybertruck.

Tesla's interest in Tulsa confirms the city's desirability for large-scale advanced manufacturing projects and, even though historically dominated by the oil and gas industry, an ability to diversify its industries, said Chris Schwinden, a senior vice president who leads the industrial business for the Dallas-based Site Selection Group advisory firm.

"If you look at its location in the south central United States, it makes a lot of sense that big companies want to be there," said Schwinden, who's familiar with the region but isn't involved in Tulsa deals. "Tulsa is a really strong manufacturing market with robust training programs and a strong pipeline of labor. Tulsa is a Goldilocks-type of market that's big enough to satisfy hiring needs and not too big in which a company might have to deal with traffic congestion and other issues that pop up in larger cities."

"Tulsa has flown under the radar for quite some time and Tesla's interest has brought the city to the forefront in terms of growth and quality of life," Hendershot said in an interview.

Developers in Tulsa don't tend to build large amounts of speculative industrial buildings as they do across the Red River in Texas. Instead, Oklahoma developers tend to wait to have a tenant in tow before beginning construction, he said.

That patience paid off with Tulsa landing a four-story, 2.56 million-square-foot Amazon e-commerce hub near the Muscogee Creek Nation that Hendershot said was "the crowning jewel of the decade for Tulsa," with a lot of land to do more deals. For real estate investors, Tulsa, which Hendershot says is like Austin a decade ago, can be seen as a bargain compared to the capital city of Texas, which ranked No. 1 in the nation for commercial real estate prospects and demand this year, according to the Urban Land Institute's annual survey.

Tulsa is a "really big small town" with growth potential because of what he calls business-friendly atmosphere and economic development help from the surrounding tribes in Oklahoma, said Schwinden.

"The tribal participation in economic development in Tulsa and, more broadly in Oklahoma, can be a big advantage for companies," Schwinden said in an interview. "It's a little bit of the secret sauce as it relates to economic development in Oklahoma being positioned to win big deals."

Native American tribes helped bring some big names to Oklahoma with the Cherokee Nation and the Muscogee Creek Nation being part of a larger coalition in helping e-commerce giant Amazon expand its presence in Tulsa. Years ago, the Cherokee Nation brought a half million dollars of economic incentives to a deal to bring a 1.2 million-square-foot distribution center for Macy's to Tulsa.

For potential employers, Schwinden said Tulsa could be a "surprisingly cool" choice with an arts and museum and culinary scene. City leaders created the Tulsa Remote program in 2018 to lure diverse young professionals with remote jobs by giving them up to $10,000 and office space in coworking locations. The program is funded by the George Kaiser Family Foundation, which recently donated $50 million to develop workforce development programs in Tulsa targeting jobs in energy technology, virtual health, drones, cybertechnology and data analytics.

As part of the $50 million investment, the Holberton School, a coding academy in San Francisco, is expected to open its third U.S. campus in Tulsa in early 2021. Billionaire George Kaiser made his money in oil and gas and banking and he opened The Gathering Place, a 66-acre park in Tulsa that's the largest public park in the country built with private funds, in 2018.

Several high-profile tech companies are planning a permanent work-from-home setup because of the pandemic and Tulsa might be a draw for workers and employers looking to exit big city life and rents, Schwinden said. For investors, this could be a good time to prepare for what is expected to be a bigger future for the city.

"There's an opportunity for Tulsa to better prepare with the help of developers, investors and especially the local community, which can play a big role in these industrial parks," Schwinden added.

Social media giant Facebook plans to hire remote employees in areas such as Dallas, Denver and Atlanta and pay them salaries based on their location, a move that could save Facebook a substantial amount considering the average annual tech salary in its hometown in Silicon Valley is $136,060, the highest in the nation, according to CBRE.

Growth Potential

Tulsa ranked as one of the 25 smaller markets to watch this year for growth potential for fostering tech talent development, according to CBRE's Scoring Tech Talent report. Tulsa had 13,040 tech workers in 2019, up 34% over the past year, with an average salary of $77,701, according to CBRE. Austin, meanwhile, ranked No. 6 on the report out of large markets and had 76,270 tech jobs in 2019, up 16.7% since 2014, paying an average annual salary of $95,416, according to CBRE.

Still, Tulsa has a high concentration of energy companies and is expected to be hurt by low oil prices. Energy companies have been hesitant to add jobs back, and consolidation and closings are disrupting Tulsa's office sector, according to a CoStar market analytics report.

And Austin's commercial real estate growth in the past decade has an edge over Tulsa in terms of two high-profile cultural factors: The Austin music scene is so strong it fostered the television program and festival Austin City Limits, which gave that city a national profile. Austin also is home to the well-known University of Texas at Austin, which provides so much trained technology workers that global companies like Google, Facebook and Apple have opened offices in the city. Those names often result in smaller tech companies popping up in the same area.

Even so, Tesla's Musk said on an earnings call last week when it posted its fourth consecutive quarter of positive profits that the Fortune 500 company will consider Tulsa for future expansions. That "bodes well for the future" of the city, said Bill Murphy, who oversaw economic development for the Tulsa Regional Chamber during the Tesla search. He now holds a deputy secretary role with the Kansas Department of Commerce.

"This reflects the community at large really put forward a positive image of the state and the community and we were able to compete with a world class city like Austin," Murphy said in an interview. "To have Elon Musk mention your city in an earnings call is every economic developer's dream."

As far as proceeding on any immediate large-scale development, the Tulsa area has three sites ready to go. MidAmerica Industrial Park is a business area involved in large industrial deals with tenant companies such as DuPont and Google, officials said.

Other sites being heavily marketed by Tulsa leaders include the Peoria Mohawk Business Park, an industrial area developed by the George Kaiser Family Foundation and the city of Tulsa in a partnership to drive business to north Tulsa, and the Claremore Industrial Park in Claremore, Oklahoma. Other sites near Tulsa, including in Broken Arrow and Muskogee, are also development possibilities.

Justin McLaughlin, executive vice president and chief operating officer for the Tulsa Regional Chamber, said finding large industrial development areas across the country can be difficult, but the Tulsa region has several "shovel ready" sites ready to go.

"You don't get looked at for these large projects unless you have the sites," said McLaughlin, who also is interim senior vice president for economic development, in an interview. "This put us on the radar screen with consultants and now there's a lot of information out there on us."

Murphy agrees, adding "this kind of publicity will pay dividends for another couple of months to a year."

They kinda stepped on their point by touting the attraction of an Amazon fulfillment center.  I mean, where does Amazon NOT have a fulfillment center?  (Hint: they are building one in Des Moines too, and one in Little Rock)  They currently have about 164 fulfillment centers in the US and are opening another 16 (including Tulsa) this year.  Getting one's first Amazon fulfillment center in 2020 doesn't tell us much about a city other than that it is a mid-sized metro area (perhaps a slightly under-achieving one).

[heironymouspasparagus]

I've been saying this for years and those that have been on this forum awhile are probably rolling their eyes: invest in higher education and it will pay dividends.  That is the missing ingredient Tulsa needs to take the next step.  The University of Tulsa, even as a private institution, should be leading the way and expanding.  They need to be more like a Vanderbilt or TCU.  And OSU and OU-Tulsa need to be full 4 year universities with residential campuses in their respective parts of town (Greenwood for OSU and midtown for OU).  

OSU Health Sciences/OSU Med Center/VA Hospital should be a medical complex on par with OU's in OKC.  And OSU should have all of its research programs and facilities in Tulsa.  The flagship undergraduate campus will always be in Stillwater but the bulk of graduate programs as well as undergrad programs in engineering, science, technology and business should be offered in Tulsa.  Look no further than Nebraska for how to operate a flagship campus (UNL) as well as an urban research campus (UNO) or the University of Colorado with Boulder and Denver.

Me too!  True!

Dallas and Texas in general didn't get the likes of Texas Instruments (Geophysical Service, Inc) by not having decent technical education!  As much as I like to tease Texas about being Baja Oklahoma, and some of the other crap they pull, technically, they shine!

And the eye rollers are just ignorant mouth breathers who don't understand much beyond how to pull a t-shirt over their head!   And half the time they get that inside out!

[Jake]

https://youtu.be/5ZZTBUtmX3M

Perspective from Musk himself on why Austin was chosen.

When asked about Oklahoma: "Wasn't a matter of who wanted Tesla. There's a critical mass of engineering and management that are needed to create this factory. There are a lot of smart talented people; it's not like just dropping a copy machine somewhere. The factory is the product more than the car. So it matters where these really talented people are willing to go and what is an uphill battle. Austin was not an uphill battle; that's why we picked Austin."

Also said there will be a 3rd gigafactory but said it would likely be in the northeast U.S. in the next 4-5 years, so it's doubtful Tulsa will ever get a Tesla factory.

Oklahoma simply doesn't have the education centers like Austin or other large cities do.

On the bright side, maybe all this national attention will attract another call center to Tulsa?

[SXSW]

https://youtu.be/5ZZTBUtmX3M

Perspective from Musk himself on why Austin was chosen.

When asked about Oklahoma: "Wasn't a matter of who wanted Tesla. There's a critical mass of engineering and management that are needed to create this factory. There are a lot of smart talented people; it's not like just dropping a copy machine somewhere. The factory is the product more than the car. So it matters where these really talented people are willing to go and what is an uphill battle. Austin was not an uphill battle; that's why we picked Austin."

Also said there will be a 3rd gigafactory but said it would likely be in the northeast U.S. in the next 4-5 years, so it's doubtful Tulsa will ever get a Tesla factory.

Oklahoma simply doesn't have the education centers like Austin or other large cities do.

On the bright side, maybe all this national attention will attract another call center to Tulsa?

If Reno and Buffalo can attract a Tesla factory so can Tulsa.  There is an electric truck factory in Normal, Illinois (Rivian).  We lost this round but are very much in the game, maybe not specifically for Tesla but other advanced manufacturing companies.  To my point though we need to better invest in higher education and part of that is having TU raise its profile as an engineering/technology hub which is attainable.

[LandArchPoke]

If Reno and Buffalo can attract a Tesla factory so can Tulsa.  There is an electric truck factory in Normal, Illinois (Rivian).  We lost this round but are very much in the game, maybe not specifically for Tesla but other advanced manufacturing companies.  To my point though we need to better invest in higher education and part of that is having TU raise its profile as an engineering/technology hub which is attainable.

Agreed, I do think Tesla will build the next plant for cars likely in the Northeast. Given what someone else said about their delivery model being different (direct to consumers) that makes total sense they would want a factory in the Mid Atlantic or Northeast.

I still think when they get around to building the semi, Tulsa is probably the perfect location for it given our location in the Central US and near major trucking companies and people like Walmart who would be huge customers of the semi.

Even if Telsa doesn't come to Tulsa even, there's other electric car makers (Rivian, Fisker, Nikola, etc.) that all likely have Tulsa on their list now to at least scope out for future plants given we were a finalist for Tesla.

I have hope that Kaiser's involvement with TU will transform the university into something similar to Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. That has been such a huge boost for that city that once was largely in the same category of other rust belt cities and now has become one of the biggest tech hubs in the Northeast for things like self driving cars. I'm encourage by the sectors they are focusing on like drones tech. OSU has probably the nations best drone programs in the nation and we've done little to capture much from that in partnering with tech firms. TU is also fairly well known for cyber security and further growing that sector which is a focus for the Kaiser foundation I think will pay off too, this will become a key sector of technology going forward not just for the civic side (cities, state, federal govt) but also for private firms like banks, etc. and we could become a hub for companies security divisions.

I find more to be encouraged about all of this and I just hope we don't go back to sleep, which I feel a lot of our leadership has been for the past several decades and actually use this moment to move forward with things we need to improve upon like higher education and research which is the catalyst for being an attractive market for expansion of most tech companies. 

[Oil Capital]

Agreed, I do think Tesla will build the next plant for cars likely in the Northeast. Given what someone else said about their delivery model being different (direct to consumers) that makes total sense they would want a factory in the Mid Atlantic or Northeast.

I still think when they get around to building the semi, Tulsa is probably the perfect location for it given our location in the Central US and near major trucking companies and people like Walmart who would be huge customers of the semi.

Even if Telsa doesn't come to Tulsa even, there's other electric car makers (Rivian, Fisker, Nikola, etc.) that all likely have Tulsa on their list now to at least scope out for future plants given we were a finalist for Tesla.

I have hope that Kaiser's involvement with TU will transform the university into something similar to Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. That has been such a huge boost for that city that once was largely in the same category of other rust belt cities and now has become one of the biggest tech hubs in the Northeast for things like self driving cars. I'm encourage by the sectors they are focusing on like drones tech. OSU has probably the nations best drone programs in the nation and we've done little to capture much from that in partnering with tech firms. TU is also fairly well known for cyber security and further growing that sector which is a focus for the Kaiser foundation I think will pay off too, this will become a key sector of technology going forward not just for the civic side (cities, state, federal govt) but also for private firms like banks, etc. and we could become a hub for companies security divisions.

I find more to be encouraged about all of this and I just hope we don't go back to sleep, which I feel a lot of our leadership has been for the past several decades and actually use this moment to move forward with things we need to improve upon like higher education and research which is the catalyst for being an attractive market for expansion of most tech companies. 

Musk has already said the semi will also be built in Austin.  "In addition to the Cybertruck, Tesla will also build Model Ys and Model 3s destined for the East Coast, as well as the Tesla Semi," Musk said.  https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/22/21334860/tesla-cybertruck-factory-austin-texas-location-model-y

[Jake]

Reno and Buffalo are battery factories, which are very different from what Austin will be getting. Could Tulsa get a battery factory in the future? Possibly, and I agree that there's some positive momentum moving forward for something similar for Tulsa, which would be really cool.

But for the management positions that the Austin facility will include, Tulsa was never a real possibility. The higher-ups at Tesla were never going to choose Tulsa over Austin for that.