82 Business and Expansion Announcements Made in 2017

The Oklahoma Department of Commerce recently released the 2017 Publicly Announced New and Expanding Oklahoma Companies Annual Report. According to the report, there were 82 new business and expansion public announcements made statewide, including 22 companies that are new to Oklahoma. The announcements total more than $6 billion in new investment in 2017 and are expected to create more than 3,500 jobs.

Invenergy’s $4.5 billion wind farm in the Oklahoma panhandle was the largest announcement of the year. Invenergy, North America’s largest independent, privately-held renewable energy company, along with GE Renewable Energy and AEP-PSO announced a 2,000-megawatt wind farm that will be the largest in the U.S. and second-largest in the world, once operational. The Wind Catcher facility is currently under construction and will generate wind electricity from 800 state-of-the-art GE 2.5 megawatt turbines.

“Wind Catcher shows American leadership in bringing low-cost clean energy to market at giga scale,” said Invenergy’s Founder and CEO Michael Polsky. “This project reflects Invenergy’s innovative spirit and unparalleled execution ability, and we are proud to be working with forward-looking utilities like PSO and SWEPCO whose customers and communities will benefit from this project for decades to come.”

MedXM’s plan to hire over 400 employees was the largest expansion in employment of the year.

“As part of our expansion plan and to better serve our national footprint, we researched and spoke to a number of different state governments. I’m happy to announce that Oklahoma, specifically Oklahoma City, was chosen as our new home,” said MedXM Chief Executive Officer Sy Zahedi. “We look forward to being part of this community by creating jobs and contributing to the state economy. I would like to thank Governor Mary Fallin and her staff in making this a wonderful experience. We were able to check every box we needed to make this an obvious choice.”

GF Central Plastics in Shawnee added a new training facility and warehouse space, and has invested approximately $10 million in infrastructure in its operation over the last couple of years.

“We’re pretty proud of this place,” said Mark Smith, GF Central Plastics President and Managing Director. “This year alone, we’ve added about 25,000 square feet of new warehouse facility.”

Georg Fischer, a $3.5 billion organization, acquired Central Plastics in 2008. The Shawnee site is one of the largest manufacturers in the area. The company intends to invest another $5 million in coming years.

Information in the 2017 Publicly Announced New and Expanding Oklahoma Companies report is collected from a variety of sources including internal Department of Commerce reports, statewide and nationwide newspapers, and company websites. Only companies making public announcements are included in this report. Retail-only companies, bank branch offices and hospitals are not included in this report. The Oklahoma Department of Commerce does not release individual company investment amounts.

You can download quarterly and annual online versions of this report.

Snapshot of 2017 Publicly Announced New & Expanding Companies