Was scanning the on-line version of the Dallas Business Journal: www.bizjournals.com/Dallas and saw an article about the Petco retail operation looking for a new home for 400 jobs in a new back-office operation. (See Monday's stories if you go to the website). Since I'm not a subscriber, I couldn't read the whole article but did see the paragraph which read that along with Dallas, the company was considering San Antonio and Norman, OK. Anybody know anything about this? 400 office jobs could be a coup for the OKC area in this economy.

First I have heard of it. It would make a nice addition to Norman and the metro as a whole.

It would be nice to add a petco office branch out here that will employee that many people

Let's see... Oklahoma vs. two Texas cities, all trying to lure a company for 400 jobs.

I hope I am wrong, but Oklahoma's record vs. Texas in recruiting businesses and jobs isn't very good. Usually Okla is being used as some kind of leverage ploy by companies.

Again I hope I am wrong, I would feel more optimistic if we were up against another state.

Well, OKC DID land the 550 Boeing jobs. Let's see if Norman's recruiting is successful. Historically, Norman has a good track record of recruiting jobs. I can't say the same for many other cities in Oklahoma. Please keep in mind that recruiting companies hinges more on the abilities of the municipality and not the state. The state has incentives available, but it's the icing on the cake from the municipal level that makes or breaks a deal.

Let's see... Oklahoma vs. two Texas cities, all trying to lure a company for 400 jobs.

I hope I am wrong, but Oklahoma's record vs. Texas in recruiting businesses and jobs isn't very good. Usually Okla is being used as some kind of leverage ploy by companies.

Again I hope I am wrong, I would feel more optimistic if we were up against another state.

Unfortunately I have to agree with this statement. Anyone remember the aircraft manufacturer in Florida that used a possible relocation to OKC to bleed more tax incentives out of their home state? Another thing to consider: Petco is out of San Diego. There is 1 or 2 direct daily OKC-LAX flights on United but they're hanging on by a thread.

Of course Norman already has OfficeMax back-office operations here and they're hq'ed in Chicago, and they seem to be doing great. Maybe I'm being too pessimistic.

Someone should send an email to NEDC or Cindy Rosethal's office and see if they are actually following up with this. The city has some success stories in terms of luring business to Norman but they also have some cases of collossal boat-missing.

Was Texas in the running for Boeing? I don't know if they were.

It is the whole Okla vs Texas that doesn't bring optimism. Like I said if it were cities outside of Texas vs Norman, I would like the odds.

Was Texas in the running for Boeing? I don't know if they were.

It is the whole Okla vs Texas that doesn't bring optimism. Like I said if it were cities outside of Texas vs Norman, I would like the odds.

Boeing is a special case because they had already established operations here, as well as a major aeronautical presence in the form of Tinker, which is a huge advantage for OKC. Plus Oklahoma (or anywhere for that matter) is probably heaven on earth for a business when compared to Cali.

I agree with you on the Ok vs Tx thing. Outside of avaition, energy, and (maybe) biotech OKC still is working at a disadvantage, although less than in the past, for a new business when compared to the Lone Star State. I meant to mention that not only can you get to San Diego from DFW on several daily flights, but even San Antonio's dungeon of an airport has direct access to SAN.

I agree with you on the Ok vs Tx thing. Outside of avaition, energy, and (maybe) biotech OKC still is working at a disadvantage, although less than in the past, for a new business when compared to the Lone Star State.

Despite the relative success of the OU HSC, OKC seems to be working at a significant disadvantage in attracting bioscience and medical technology companies compared with Texas. Texas has multiple life sciences/medical research centers which bring in far more research grant money than OU HSC; just the UT system of med schools alone (5 schools) brings in over 14x the federal research dollars that OU HSC does. (Just to note, there is a definitive correlation between the presence of major academic research institutions and large clusters of biotech companies, as is generally the case with STEM fields.) Austin, Dallas, and Houston (but not OKC) have all been named "emerging biotech clusters" and in fact Austin ranks among the top 12 biotech cities in the country (Milken Institute). OKC has definitely made great strides in this area but it seems there is still a very significant gap between OK and Texas when it comes to biotech.

With all that being said, good luck to Norman and I am sure that NEDC is all over this.

I thought the United LAX-OKC flights were doing extremely well and was the reason for UA to add the 2nd daily and consider a 3rd or an upgrade to mainline of one of the existing 2 flights. .. also, I thought OKC draws very well to San Diego and had daily non-stops that were discontinued ONLY because the airline itself withdrew for it's own financial reasons and NOT because OKC-SAN D wasn't popular. While I agree that Texas usually has an advantage over Oklahoma, I don't agree that San Antonio has as much of an advantage over Norman, particularly when it comes to Back Office operations.

Most of you guys are trying to pull a lot of irrelevant comparisons from all over the place and trying to correlate it to Norman or OKC competitiveness in general. While historically some of that may be true, I think you guys need to come to the 2010's - and realize what you have in Oklahoma City. While I agree that the city (ies) should really go after companies and build on the successes it has, OKC has come a long way and IS a player. OKC might not be the force that the UT Med cities are - but it is most likely because OKC has just been established and those centers have been around for ages and have significant political pull for federal research dollars. ....

Companies using other cities to get power plays from their existing home is not new or unusual and it happens to far more places than OKC. But be thankful that OKC is a player and at least mentioned (if not strongly considered, which I think for the airframe factory OKC was the leader until FL stepped up).

I think OKC should really go after MORE back-office and data warehousing operations. We don't ONLY need to try to land corporate offices, back-offices are the next best thing and OFTEN have more jobs than the corporate headquarters. Tampa made it's mark being a back-office city, why can't OKC be the national/world back-office.

As for the flights, I don't see it as an issue - San Diego can be brought back, the business is there and if there is a flux from PetCo that necessitates so much face time then the flights will be offered. In this day and age is becoming less and less the case. But I think most likely what would happen is United bumping at least one of the existing non-stops up to mainline and people needing to go to SD making the 20 minute connection. ....

I dont see flights as an issue, it's not like we are talking about a Seattle based company, where there would be a significant connection to get between OKC-SEA - without United's direct flight via Denver that they often do.

Let's make this AND MANY MORE BACK OFFICE operations happen for OKC and the Metro Area. I think that is the 'immediate' future.

OKC-LAX is NOT hanging on by a thread. Both of those flights have been oversold each way everyday this summer with high yield passengers. They aren't going anywhere. What we may end up seeing is a 3rd daily if some aircraft free up in the schedule.

OKC-SAN (San Diego) was dropped because the airline doing it ended branded service. In other words, they stopped ALL of their routes from every city on their route map.

That's all I care to add tonight.

that's all what I thought, SkyWest - and I was speaking to those who were claiming SAN-OKC was not viable and OKC-LAX was 'fledgling'.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if United upgrades at least one of the LAX flights to mainline, as SkyWest said, both flights are oversold and Im sure people are connecting to SAN and SFO/SEA from LAX. In fact, I almost bought a flight from Seattle to OKC which went through LAX.

Yeah, I was adding to and confirming what you were saying. It bugs me when people toss these wild assumptions around about our destined "failure" as a city.

my family loved the direct flight to san diego, we where able to see family about once every 6 months, they would fly in bring firends, we would fly out to them, we miss the direct flight to san diego so much, i hope theybring it back or at least bring it back for certrain days ea week some how

I concur SkyWest! :)

OKC is doing well (could be better, but definitely is not 'fledgling') and IS a competitor on the national stage. ....

An article today on newsok.com states that a "national retail company is considering moving its headquarters" to the UNP office park. The company could create up to 600 jobs in Norman according to Don Wood the executive director of the NECD. Given the article in the Dallas business journal cited above, it would stand to reason to believe that the company is Petco. Whether it is a back office operation or the actual headquarters, who knows but clearly NECD is working hard to bring a significant number of good paying jobs to Norman.

Would be great news if it comes to fruition!