Business Briefs (Week of April 28)

Looking for business briefs? This week's roundup (for the week ending April 28) from The Journal Record.

Norman task force seeks collaboration, vision for future
Frustrated by years of contention and division within the Norman community, the Norman Economic Development Coalition has undertaken a visioning process to engage the public and build consensus on common goals regarding the city’s future. Community leaders say Norman’s identity has faded and its forward momentum is restricted under the weight of failed bond elections, community development debacles, controversial police funding policies and City Council recall efforts. NEDC President and CEO Lawrence McKinney said his office has hired the Oklahoma Academy for State Goals to facilitate a visioning process, called One Norman, which will take place over the next several months.  Photo by Chip Minty
 
Swiss company to build drone-testing research labs in Tulsa
Swiss company WindShape has announced a strategic partnership with the Osage tribal nation to open a cutting-edge indoor drone testing and validation facility at the Skyway36 Droneport and Technology Innovation Center in Tulsa. WindShape was established in 2016 to revolutionize the drone industry through research, development, testing, inspection, certification and validation. The 19,000-square-foot facility in Tulsa will be operated exclusively by WindShape and will utilize its technology to create an indoor free-flight laboratory, simulating natural wind and weather profiles for precise and reliable test results, according to a news release from the company.
 
Program to advance Cherokee women entrepreneurs
The Cherokee Nation, the University of Tulsa’s Collins College of Business and StitchCrew are partnering to offer a Native American Women Entrepreneurship Accelerator to Cherokee women this fall.  A first of its kind in the region, the eight-week program focuses on supporting Native American women as underrepresented entrepreneurs. The programming will take participants from conception to business planning and then through steps to growing their business before concluding with an opportunity to pitch their business proposal to potential investors and partners.  The tribe will provide $10,000 to each Cherokee woman selected to participate in the pilot program.
 
Glossip faces execution after board denies clemency
Oklahoma’s state parole board voted Wednesday not to recommend clemency for death row inmate Richard Glossip, even though the state attorney general said he doesn’t think the condemned man whose case has drawn interest from celebrities and others received a fair trial. The board voted 2-2 to not recommend that Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt grant clemency to Glossip, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection on May 18. One board member recused himself because his spouse is a prosecutor who had previous involvement in Glossip’s case, leading Glossip’s lead attorney to object to the move in his opening remarks Wednesday. There is no way to appeal the board’s decision, and Stitt would have needed the board’s recommendation in order to grant clemency. Glossip’s attorneys still have a pending petition before the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to halt his execution.
 
Report shows yearly rent growth down first time since March 2020
Yearly rent growth turned negative for the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 era, according to the April report from Rent.com. March rent levels dipped nearly half a percentage point following eight months of decelerating growth and six months of single-digit growth. That followed double-digit increases from October 2021 to September 2022. Yearly growth last was posted negative three years ago, in March 2020. Despite the yearly decrease in rents at the national level, more than 80% of state-level markets posted positive yearly rent growth, including Oklahoma. The state’s current median rent rate is $998, which is a 4.15% increase year over year, according to the report.
 
White House OKs Stitt’s disaster relief request
The White House on April 24 approved Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt’s request for federal disaster relief as the tornado-ravaged Shawnee community struggled to recover from this month’s devastation. Stitt submitted the request April 23 after declaring a state of emergency in Lincoln, Cleveland, McClain, Oklahoma and Pottawatomie counties on April 20 after at least eight tornadoes caused widespread damage in central Oklahoma. The Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security has estimated $9 million in response and debris cleanup costs in McClain and Pottawatomie counties. Aerial damage assessments conducted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and spot-checked by the department and local officials show more than 2,000 homes and apartments were impacted, with 231 severely damaged or destroyed.
 
Walmart to open health centers in Oklahoma City
Walmart Health announced it will expand into Oklahoma, opening four health centers in the Oklahoma City area in 2024. The facilities will be built adjacent to Walmart Supercenters. They will offer a full suite of health services, including primary care, labs, X-ray and EKG, behavioral health, dental, hearing, community health and telehealth, said Dr. David Carmouche, senior vice president of omnichannel care offerings at Walmart. Launched in 2019, Walmart Health has more than 30 locations in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Texas and additional clinics scheduled to open in Florida this year. With the addition of clinics in Oklahoma, Missouri and Arizona in 2024, the number of locations will double to 80, Carmouche said.
 
 
Overall winners announced in Most Admired CEOs event 
The Journal Record revealed the overall category winners at the 2023 Oklahoma’s Most Admired CEOs and Financial Stewardship Award event April 24 at the Skirvin Hilton hotel in Oklahoma City.  Thirty-nine Most Admired CEO selections, as well as the five financial stewardship award recipients, were recognized at the 14th annual reception and dinner.   CEOs were honored in three categories – public company, private company and nonprofit. An overall winner was selected in the financial stewardship category as well.  This year’s winners are: Nonprofit CEO – Kelly Kay, YMCA of Greater Oklahoma City; Private CEO – H.K. Hatcher, NBC Oklahoma; Public CEO – Mautra Staley Jones, Oklahoma City Community College; and Financial – John MacDonald, Oklahoma City Dodgers. 
 
Oklahoma seeing strong air travel
Air travel is off to a hot start in 2023, even exceeding pre-pandemic levels nationwide, and Oklahoma is following the trend. Will Rogers World Airport saw 980,188 passengers fly in and out of Oklahoma City from January through March. In Q1 2023, it outpaced the previous record set in 2019 by 44,845, according to data from the airport. Local experts point to economic recovery and easing pandemic travel restrictions as reasons for the rebound of incoming and outgoing travel, even with flight prices being high. According to Airline Reporting Corporation, the average U.S. round-trip air travel ticket price was $559 in March, a 4% increase from the previous year’s $540.
 
Mercy launches ER expansion in northwest OKC
Mercy broke ground on a new construction project on April 21 to expand the emergency department at its hospital in northwest Oklahoma City. Hospital officials said the project will include adding square footage to the ER that will house a much-needed CT scanner and space for additional radiology equipment in the future. Patients in the ER needing a CT scan currently must be taken to a different floor in the hospital to get specialized imaging required for a diagnosis.
 
A shocked Rose State grieves after deadly shooting
One student is dead and a suspect is in custody after Midwest City police arrived to a college-turned-crime-scene on April 24. Students R.J. Long and Yingzi Li had just left the Humanities building at Rose State College when Brandon Morrissette, Li’s husband, confronted the pair with a pistol and shot Long, police said. Police responded in force and confronted the suspect, who fell to his knees and surrendered. Midwest City Police Chief Sidney Porter said Long was pronounced dead at the scene. No one else was injured; Porter said multiple witnesses observed the shooting. Porter described the shooting as “domestic-related.”