With Balon Valve's new expansion consisting of a 300,000 sqft manufacturing facility, on S.E. 36th/Eastern, and M-D Building Products new expansion consisting of a 81,000 sqft distribution facility, on N.E. 39th/Santa Fe, I thought I would start a new thread dedicated to blue collar development!

Whether we like it or not, and try not to mention it, blue collar development is what fuels OKC's economy, so lets give it some research and credit, we always don't have to converse about high-rises and retail! Bring on the blue collar industry!

Pete, I found this on bid clerk, under Oklahoma City/Distribution/Warehouse posted on 02/08/11:

"Site work and new construction of a distribution facility in Oklahoma City. Completed working drawings call for the construction of a distribution facility to include a 184,966-square-foot warehouse and 9,329-square-foot office space".

Can you get details?

You'll have to forgive me that I don't really understand your post. Are you referring to blue collar or manufacturing jobs? There are IT and manager types (white collar) in manufacturing plants. OTOH there are blue collar, hands on jobs at large corporate type office enviornments as well.

With that being said, OKC has a lot of manufacturing jobs tied to this area's 2 biggest economic engines : oil & gas and defense work out of Tinker. Honestly, outside of that, most manufacturing jobs in this country have either been automated or sent to China.

You'll have to forgive me that I don't really understand your post. Are you referring to blue collar or manufacturing jobs? There are IT and manager types (white collar) in manufacturing plants. OTOH there are blue collar, hands on jobs at large corporate type office enviornments as well.

With that being said, OKC has a lot of manufacturing jobs tied to this area's 2 biggest economic engines : oil & gas and defense work out of Tinker. Honestly, outside of that, most manufacturing jobs in this country have either been automated or sent to China.


OKC and area is site of headquarters of at least 5 major HVAC companies and a major division of Johnston Controls. There is a lot more manufacturing here than oil and gas and military related.

This thread is a very strange creation.

This thread is a very strange creation.

I agree, Spartan. I see no need to differentiate. OKC needs many types of employment opportunites and we don't need to have a "class" discussion about it.

I just think the title makes it weird.."Blue Collar Development" just sounds like something that belongs on a joke forum. We had a thread where we were talking about Balon Valve.

I agree, and these people are fooling themselves if we don't need more white collar to fuel OKCs economy, if anything we need more of it than anything.

oh c'mon, it's not that big of a deal. I think it's good to have a thread discussing industrial development. I'm often curious about the building/planning/expanding etc being done in some of the less visible warehouse and manufacturing corners of the city. Now, having a broad blanket thread about them may not be the way to go, but I think the intentions are admirable.

EBAH, I agree it's good discussing it, and I'm just as interested as the next guy knowing what goes on in all parts of the city, regarding construction, new business, and demolitions. Sure OKC has plenty of blue collar work, but my point was that OKC does not have enough white collar work, it's what we've always had a difficult time recruiting because of QoL issues. Blue collar industries don't care about QoL as much when relocating or expanding.