Auto maker's development in Pryor gets assist from former Oklahoma U.S. senator

Don Nickles, a lawmaker in Washington, D.C., from 1981 until 2005, served on a board with members of Canoo’s board of directors, said Brent Kisling, executive director of commerce for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce.

After learning of Canoo’s desire to build its first plant, Nickles educated company reps on the virtues of MAIP.

“Don knew some of those folks and reached out to us at the Department of Commerce and said, ‘Hey, I’ve learned about this new project and you need to call this lady that’s on the board,’” said Kisling, also a trustee on the Oklahoma Ordnance Works Authority (OOWA), which operates MAIP. “She introduced us to Tony (Aquila, Canoo’s chairman and CEO). It all moved very rapidly after that.”

Tuesday was the first OOWA’s meeting since officials last week said Canoo plans to pour $400 million into a facility that will employ 2,000 people at MAIP.

The factory will include a full commercialization facility with a paint and body shop and general assembly plant. The campus also will include a low-volume industrialization facility and vocational training center.

The initial build-out is scheduled to begin this year, with the plant becoming operational within 12 to 13 months and fully completed by 2024.

“It fits their model of creativity, diversity and speed to market,” MAIP CEO David Stewart said. “The focus of the story really is what Oklahoma has and what the governor brings in terms of pro-activity and interaction with the legislature and the effort of ODOT (Oklahoma Department of Commerce) to provide incentives and getting that set up in combination with a site that can meet their need.”

Canoo looked at more than 30 sites before deciding on Oklahoma, he said. The company will benefit from MAIP infrastructure, workforce, education and other improvements that will approach $100 million, Stewart said.

“Most of incentive that we provided was the acceleration of projects in our master planning process,” Stewart said.

Kisling characterized Canoo’s average pay scale in Oklahoma to be “well above” $45,000 annually.

“There would be very few people within their entire organization that would make under $45,000,” he said.

Citing exemptions in the Oklahoma Open Records Act regarding business development, the commerce department last week declined to detail incentives the state offered Canoo. Aquila reportedly told Reuters Oklahoma is providing the company more than $300 million in tax incentives.

“The important point is that all of the incentives will be public at some point,” Kisling said. “But we are still in the negotiating stage. We do contracts on every incentive because everything in Oklahoma is performance-based. So, they have to perform.

“That’s the way every project works. You agree in earnest on what the deal’s going to look like. Then, once the contracts are completed, that’s whenever it becomes public knowledge.”

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