Norman Economic Development Coalition charting course for Norman, OU’s SEC future
Norman Economic Development Coalition charting course for Norman, OU’s SEC future
Since OU was established in 1890, it has remained in a constant state of evolution, from its humble beginnings on the second floor of the Rock Building on Main Street in 1892 to the 3,500 acres it currently spans in Norman.
This is how colleges and communities evade decline and desolation: They are constantly reinventing themselves.
That explanation of organizational progression, outlined by an S-curve diagram in a book by business consultant and motivational speaker Ken Blanchard, is a favorite anecdote of Lawrence McKinney, president and CEO of the Norman Economic Development Coalition.
As the leader of the public-private economic growth co-op between OU, Norman, the Norman Chamber of Commerce and Moore-Norman Technology Center, McKinney understands OU’s impending transition to the Southeastern Conference is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the city and university to reinvent themselves.
When OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. explained the decision to pursue SEC membership on July 30, 2021, ahead of the university regents’ vote to accept the conference’s invitation, he professed that standing pat in the Big 12 amid the ever-shifting landscape of college athletics equated with falling behind. Reinvention, with ensuring future prosperity as its goal, was at the forefront of the move.
OU and Texas' move to the SEC was recently expedited from summer 2025 to 2024 after an early exit agreement between the schools, the Big 12 and rights-holding television networks ESPN and Fox. During the Norman Economic Development Coalition's annual meeting on Jan. 18 at Terra Verde Discovery School in northeast Norman, McKinney told 200 Norman officials and entrepreneurs, “There’s going to be a lot to happen to be ready for the SEC,” even before the accelerated timeline.
Behind the scenes, the Norman Economic Development Coalition is already playing a pivotal role in SEC preparations and the broader advancement of Norman through three priority initiatives:
1. Lawrence’s wife Elizabeth, consulting through their co-owned firm Economic Strategy Professionals, is writing a new strategic plan for improving placemaking and quality of life in Norman, which the Norman Economic Development Coalition is crafting with the Sooners’ conference realignment in mind.
2. Team Norman, a 25-committee task force dedicated to bolstering the SEC move from an athletics standpoint and in the community, is mobilizing and growing with the McKinneys as its “quarterback.”
3. ONE NORMAN, a six-month “visioning process,” will begin in April with hopes of assisting Norman with its new 20-year comprehensive master plan as the Norman City Council begins its two-year evaluation.
Cohesion is paramount in transplanting one of college athletics’ most storied universities from its middling former home to the land flowing with football fervor, ballooning television revenues and promising economic possibilities. All involved parties at OU and in Norman must be working together for the conference change to occur seamlessly.
The impetus for forming Team Norman, in particular, was a private meeting last summer that gathered key community leaders who hadn’t all been in a room together before to encourage better communication.
The McKinneys are well-traveled in their development careers, but creating synergy in Norman is a new challenge. In their many analyses of Norman, they’ve discovered contradicting plans and charred relationships that seem to make their facilitation of cooperation all the more beneficial.
Ultimately, the goal of the Norman Economic Development Coalition's three initiatives is to help OU and Norman avoid, as McKinney compared, the fate of Blockbuster movie stores, Circuit City electronics, the nation of Persia (and in football terms, the Nebraska Cornhuskers) as empires that fell because they lacked clear vision.
“The challenge here is just this blanket of negativity that's beat down a lot of the positive people here,” Lawrence told OU Daily. “We gotta get them off the sidelines and get them engaged. And so that's what Team Norman is really about: Trying to get people re-engaged in, ‘What could Norman be if we wanted it to be?’ We may find out that they don’t want it to be, so we’ll know soon.”
The McKinneys: From Athens and abroad to Norman
Lawrence’s credentials include over 35 years as an economic development professional in Georgia and Florida. In the athletics space, the Augusta, Georgian is on the gallery guard committee of the national golf course, home of the PGA Tour’s Masters Tournament. While chamber of commerce president in Daytona Beach, Florida, from 2006-13, he was on the NASCAR Checkered Flag Committee, heavily involved in Daytona 500 developments.
His tenure from 2002-06 as chamber president in Athens, Georgia, is perhaps most applicable to his current responsibilities. He was in the heart of SEC country, working alongside the University of Georgia, now college football’s two-time defending national champion.
Larry Benson, chairman of Georgia-based Motel Enterprises and Benson’s Bakery Inc., was on the board of directors for the Athens chamber at that time. As Lawrence helped him build his Hilton Garden Inn hotel in downtown Athens, he saw firsthand the partnering developer’s ability to unite people of the town and gown.
“It's tough to bring people together, and I think that was one of (Lawrence’s) attributes or one of the good things that he did, was he was able to talk to both sides and bring them together and suggest things to compromise when they were butting heads on a few things,” Benson said.
“I think he's the real deal. His experience, his maturity now has got to be a plus. And he's seen it all. He's seen quite a bit, and I think if people will listen to him, think about it, he can put some things together that will get you where you want to go.”
Jason Smith, McKinney’s predecessor as Norman Economic Development Coalition president, began developing a new strategic plan for Norman’s economic development in 2017 and hired Market Street Solutions and Economic Strategy Professionals as third-party consultants. Before COVID-19, Market Street spent two years assessing Norman and compiling a report of its findings, but the implementation of its strategic plan was halted by the pandemic.
Lawrence and Elizabeth quarantined in Florida after years of bouncing from community to community, living in other people’s homes as they presented the findings of companies like Market Street. Post-pandemic, they were inspired to settle in Norman, and in January 2021, Lawrence succeeded Smith as Norman Economic Development Coalition president.
“We ended up here and said, ‘OK, we're going to do what we do around the country,’” Lawrence said, “‘but we're going to do it here.’”
The McKinneys’ work in Norman has included confidential interviews with over 140 community members, which has helped Elizabeth rewrite Market Street’s proposed Norman Economic Development Coalition plan into their own.
While canvassing around Norman, the McKinneys have seen differences in its operations compared to Athens, some good, some bad. While Athens and Clarke County merged in 1991, in Lawrence’s eyes, “to the detriment of Athens,” Norman and Cleveland County are separate, allowing both governments a voice.
But Norman is only 20 minutes south of Oklahoma City, while Athens is over an hour away from Atlanta, so the realities of capital city influence are different. Also, in the case of Athens, nine of 10 city council members during the McKinneys’ time there were university professors.
The university “ran the town,” whereas in Norman, based on the McKinneys’ canvassing, some believe OU is becoming marginalized by the community around it and left to question if its current epicenter is best for its future.
They acknowledge some perceptions of OU’s strained relationship with the city may stem from previous presidents David Boren and Jim Gallogly, both rugged individualists who often pushed their agendas forward forcefully.
“I am confident that President Harroz has a totally different mindset,” Lawrence said. “He recognizes that they may not have been a good partner in the past, but they are at the table now, ready to be a good partner to do what needs to be done for the collective.”
But even with OU at the table, Norman’s relationship with the state government, its reputation in other cities and its infighting pose potential barriers to progress, the McKinneys explained.
“Why would we give Norman anything?” is the messaging, they say, from the state to the city regarding matters like awarding federal aid.
Kimberly Coffman, Norman budget manager, confirmed to OU Daily that Norman has not received any of the American Rescue Plan Act funds it requested from the state beginning in December 2021. Last June, the Norman Economic Development Coalition procured $20 million in ARPA funds for Norman Public Schools’ new aviation academy, but Lawrence considers it problematic that it is playing the middleman between the city and state.
Then, there’s the negative perception of Norman abroad that the McKinneys experienced on a recent trip to Durant when they explained to someone where they are from.
“It was just like, the look on this person's face was like, ‘Ew, Norman,’” Elizabeth said. “And another staff member just heard it when she was in Dallas just a few weeks ago.”
And finally, there are the naysayers directly within Norman opposed to any proposition of development. Lawrence said his time in Athens taught him what to expect from conflicts, but the McKinneys also say they’ve never experienced some of the expressions of opposition they’ve encountered in Norman.
“I mean, all college towns have a flavor of their own, right?” Elizabeth said. “But I think what's happened in this community is … this one seems to have a group of naysayers that are a little more outspoken, and feeding off of one another for sure. And what that does is it shuts down communication, and it shuts down progress or just discussion, right, and people pulling back.”
Lawrence said during the Jan. 18 Norman Economic Development Coalition annual meeting that the business community feels “beaten up,” and some companies are considering leaving Norman after being targeted for supporting development.
Just up the road, Oklahoma City has, as of 2019, invested over $1.8 billion in improvements through three Metropolitan Area Projects Plans. Meanwhile, Norman was “the place to be” 25 years ago, but as one influential interviewee from Oklahoma City told the McKinneys, Norman has “rested on its laurels” and fallen behind, since. Lawrence says Norman can no longer afford to continue that.
By organizing collaborations like Team Norman and ONE NORMAN, the McKinneys hope to unite Normanites for the greater good.
“We're just trying to really bring people together and have that conversation for the good of all,” Elizabeth said. “We want our kids to stay here. We want the talent to come back here. We want people to retire here. And until we develop a vibrant downtown and an awesome Campus Corner, OU can't be the awesome, fully educational institution that it is.”
Team Norman: Uniting for the SEC
Rewriting the Norman Economic Development Coalition's strategic plan included a careful examination of the city and its many entities’ pre-existing plans, including the city’s master transportation outline and the five pillars of OU’s “Lead on University.” After analyzing the 17 other plans in Norman, the McKinneys concluded they all contradicted each other in some fashion.
So, last July 28, nearly one year after OU accepted its SEC invite, the McKinneys gathered 12 important figures from the area — among them Harroz and OU athletics director Joe Castiglione, Norman Mayor Larry Heikkila, OU foundation president Guy Patton and a representative from Cleveland County.
The McKinneys explained how the Norman Economic Development Coalition's strategic plan will affect the 12 and the entities they represent, and discussed concerns about the lack of communication that had led to forming contradictory plots in the past.
“We actually thought we might go to that meeting (and) we might really just make some people mad when they figured out they had some conflicts in their plans,” Lawrence said. “But it wasn't like that at all. It was like, ‘We gotta fix this.’”
That meeting, Lawrence said, produced an “aha! moment” for those involved. They agreed to meet every three to four weeks to aid communication, but they took structuring their collaboration a step further.
They founded Team Norman, which currently consists of 25 SEC Readiness Committees — subject to change based on necessity and usefulness. As of February, the private grassroots group had its committee chairs in place and numbered roughly 75 in membership.
The McKinneys and the Norman Economic Development Coalition are coordinating the committees, with help from Scott Martin, Norman Chamber of Commerce president and CEO, and Dan Schemm, Visit Norman executive director. Their three organizations all office out of the less-than-1-year-old commerce building at 424 W. Main Street, which allows for frequent conversation and collaboration.
Some committees have already come and gone: On behalf of the now-defunct SEC site visits team, Martin recently presented findings from trips to Arkansas, Alabama and Kentucky to the Norman Rotary Club. Others, like the health care committee chaired by Norman Regional President Richie Splitt, will find their purpose closer to OU’s transition.
A breakdown of Team Norman's 25 SEC readiness committees.
Mason Young/OU DailyWhile Team Norman does not officially have any decision-making powers, it tends to have a great influence on Norman and OU in the near future, given its two most notable members — Heikkila and Harroz. Neither responded for comment on their Team Norman involvement before publication.
“Our committees are volunteer, but at the end of the day, I think you could look to the mayor of Norman and the president of OU as the leaders of this effort,” Lawrence said. “And they've got a lot of decision-making authority and possibilities. So what we've really done is bring the town and gown together under Team Norman. And so while we may be administering it, the two of us, you can look at those two figureheads as the co-chairs of Team Norman.”
To date, one of Team Norman’s most intriguing forays into the public eye includes a survey that reinvigorated conversation about a new OU basketball arena.
On Dec. 14, the group distributed an up-to-156-question survey to 100,000 Normanites to gauge their interest in a new entertainment district in the University North Park area that would include a new arena, with OU identifying as its Tier One tenant.
“If there’s an opportunity to create amenities for the community that are directly beneficial to the university — but also beneficial to the city, and not just the city of Norman residents — it would draw people from outside the city. I think that’s an example of mutuality,” Patton told OU Daily. “It’s really nice, from my perspective, that the university is asking itself, ‘Is there a way that we provide not only utility that we need, but also benefit to the city?’ And I think the answer is, ‘yes.’”
In 2017, the City of Norman unveiled plans to build a similar entertainment district in that area, about six miles from OU’s campus. The OU Foundation requested tax incentives through the University North Park tax increment district in 2018, the Norman Transcript reported. However, the Norman City Council voted 5-4 against the use of requested tax incentives toward an in-depth analysis of the arena proposal, per the Transcript.
After community members expressed opposition and a lawsuit was filed against the OU Foundation alleging violations of the Oklahoma Open Records Act, the foundation withdrew its request. Prospects of replacing the 50-year-old, 10,967-seat Lloyd Noble Center — a multipurpose facility south of OU’s campus, often scapegoated for low attendance figures and a general lack of vigor surrounding Sooner basketball — was on hold as of July 2018.
Patton said the initial failure may have been the result of “the wrong project at the wrong time,” but with the SEC move on the horizon, perhaps now is the appropriate time.
Within the last year, OU basketball coaches Porter Moser and Jennie Baranczyk have both advocated for a new basketball arena multiple times, calling it essential to the SEC move. Patton said the OU Foundation would support another attempt at development if the university wanted to pursue it, while Castiglione said OU is open to the possibility. That traction culminated in the Team Norman survey.
Lawrence said he expects the survey will tell whether interest in the project remains, what capacity the potential arena might have, and thus, whether OU will be a partner.
“If it's 5,000 (capacity), I think that rules out OU being a participant in it,” Lawrence said. “But if the community says that's what they want, then that's what we build because that's what the community wants.
“If it's 10,000, that's another story. Because that would be in that range that OU is looking for, actually. Eight to 12,000 is kind of a perfect fit. If it comes out that that's what we could support in this community, well, then that's a whole other story. Then it's, ‘Are we willing to,’ in the community and knowing that we've got a Class A tenant.”
His greatest concern is the survey results will indicate the city is interested in a new venue that doesn’t meet OU’s needs. Alternatives could include OU looking to another city for athletic competition space.
Patton acknowledged OU and the foundation would understand if the community didn’t convey interest in an arena partnership and said he’s confident the university can find alternative arrangements. That foundation-owned land, given its proximity to Interstate-35, could be developed in other ways, Patton said.
But, Patton pointed out that the need for basketball and gymnastics competition facility upgrades is evident as ever, and he also believes the past attempt may have ignited creativity among Normanites that lacked before.
He also noted that the rise of mixed-use developments across the country since the 2017 proposal — The Star in Frisco, Texas, The Battery in Atlanta and Texas Live! in Arlington, Texas are examples cited by the Team Norman survey — has proven the concept successful.
Lawrence said, between April and June, OU should have the information it needs from the survey to make an informed decision about its involvement with the project.
At the OU Board of Regents’ March 7 meeting, Castiglione said in addition to the survey, an architect was hired "to do a high-level schematic of how this entertainment district would operate," analyze how it interacts with other developments already standing and in planning at University North Park and ascertain the economic impact of the proposed entertainment district.
Castiglione confirmed he hopes the complete analysis will be finished before the board’s June 15 meeting and said the athletic department would gladly release its findings at that time.
He added that OU has also engaged with an architect to study “how the Lloyd Noble Center could be completely reimagined” as a “simultaneous effort” to examine both options.
Ultimately, Lawrence believes if OU is ready to decide by fall 2023, it could potentially have a new arena in 2026.
“I think OU has to make a decision on who they are a partner with, who they are leasing space from for their programs,” Lawrence said. “I believe that based on all the things, all the interviews we've done and what people have to say that Norman has kind of squeezed OU to a point where OU has to make decisions on: Is Norman the best place for us? Is Oklahoma City or Tulsa?
“But if the community doesn't want to build an entertainment venue, and OU doesn’t do that here, that is a once-in-a-lifetime loss that'll be felt a long time down the road.”
Norman City Council chamber during the Norman City Council meeting on Feb. 28, 2023.
Ray Bahner/OU DailyONE NORMAN: A vision for the future
By early April, Team Norman will complete two more community surveys — one focused on quality of life, the other on the Norman city limits.
As for what else could be possible in Norman’s SEC future, much will be determined during the visioning process, “ONE NORMAN,” which representatives from OU and the city have told the McKinneys is their top priority. The Norman Economic Development Coalition has hired the Oklahoma Academy to facilitate visioning citywide to assist with the new 20-year comprehensive master plan for Norman.
The coalition is already gathering its ONE NORMAN Vision Steering Committee — approximately 30 people, including the Norman Economic Development Coalition’s board of directors, which will provide structure to the visioning process. By the end of March, the Steering Committee will select roughly 150 applicants to join the ONE NORMAN Vision Task Force.
Before the end of April, the Norman Economic Development Coalition will host a stakeholder summit, for which it expects 1,000-1,500 attendees. It will provide more information about the visioning process and allow the community to discern what it believes should be the Vision Task Force’s focus as it begins weekly meetings in May. Its six primary focuses are government, private-sector leadership, infrastructure, placemaking, development and education.
In July, the Vision Task Force will host a town hall to present its vision to the public and hear proposed revisions and feedback before it is finalized in August by the Vision Steering Committee.
The Norman City Council is working to select its comprehensive master plan committee and begin a two-year evaluation. It is also expected to select the engineering entity Garver and architecture company RDG Planning and Design as firms that will assist with the process.
Typically, Lawrence said, the city’s selected firm would conduct its own visioning process at the outset. Instead, Garver and RDG will place a representative on the ONE NORMAN steering committee to participate as the Norman Economic Development Coalition performs the visioning process.
Ideally, the McKinneys said, City Council and its comprehensive master plan committee will agree with the finalized ONE NORMAN vision and codify it into law as part of the comprehensive plan.
Seeking perspective on how a comprehensive plan update would progress in a similarly stationed college town, OU Daily recently spoke with Steve Patterson, board president of the International Town and Gown Association, a consortium of university and community relations experts.
Patterson is also mayor of Athens — that is, Athens, Ohio, home of the other OU, Ohio University — and resides on the board of the Athens County Economic Development Council, an equivalent to the Norman Economic Development Coalition.
Patterson noted the Athens County Economic Development Council used a visioning exercise when it began updating its strategic plan in 2020, but that was separate from the city of Athens’ comprehensive master plan update, which began in 2017 and was spearheaded by the city planner.
Alignment with the economic development council and Ohio University’s plans was part of the city’s process, Patterson said, but the economic development council did not help facilitate the comprehensive plan update.
Among stakeholders in Norman, Ward 5 Councilmember Rarchar Tortorello, a member of Team Norman, told OU Daily that “everything is on the table” in regards to updating the comprehensive master plan. He also said ONE NORMAN could provide more opportunities for Normanites who aren’t selected for the city’s comprehensive plan committee to have a voice in the process.
Meanwhile, Ward 7 Councilmember Stephen Holman, also part of Team Norman, told OU Daily he is less familiar with the ONE NORMAN process. He said he could see the final vision’s economic development strategies as potential assets to the new comprehensive plan, but isn't sure of the total scope of the visioning process.
“I wouldn't see it being something that involves things like infrastructure and streets and sewer and water, city staff and things like that,” Holman said of the vision plan.
Lawrence acknowledged that “the comprehensive plan is driven by the public City Council, so while we expect and hope the two efforts will align, and should if politics were not an issue, there is no guarantee.”
But, he added Norman previously struggled to produce and approve a master plan, and Elizabeth perceives interest in participation in the city’s comprehensive plan committee has waned in recent times. The McKinneys hope they’ll receive plenty of applicants for the visioning process.
Once finalized, the “vision document” will include other “vision partners” in addition to the city government that will be tasked with implementing components of the ONE NORMAN vision. OU, Moore Norman Technology Center, Norman Public Schools, the Norman Economic Development Coalition, the Norman Chamber of Commerce and Visit Norman are among the likely vision partner.
Enormous potential
As the Norman Economic Development Coalition continues to roll out its plans, Lawrence said he expects the next few months will be “very high profile.”
Regarding other pending economic developments in Norman, the McKinneys said a pair of companies are currently analyzing Campus Corner to determine the potential of a $300-400 million investment.
The Norman Economic Development Coalition should know how far along those companies are in their analysis between April and June. It is also interested in potentially connecting Campus Corner to downtown Norman via a new commercial strip.
Lawrence is also on the master planning committee for Max Westheimer Airport, which will soon submit a comprehensive plan to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The five- to 20-year outline includes lengthening the airport runway and adding a new control tower, he said. It also accounts for the ability to host and service Gulfstream V aircraft, which many SEC programs use for athletic travel. Last September, OU posted a request for proposal soliciting bids to “modernize and streamline” its private charter travel for the SEC.
Lawrence said his acquisition of $20 million for the new Norman Public Schools flight academy will include the purchase of four new planes, while OU is buying 10 of the same type of planes. With up to 25 planes being on-site at a time, there will be “a lot more air traffic” at Max Westheimer, he said.
The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority’s ACCESS Oklahoma plan, which would create a new turnpike along Indian Hills Road connecting Newcastle to Norman, and extend the Kickapoo Turnpike west of Lake Thunderbird to connect it to Purcell, is engulfed in public controversy.
Lawrence said the Norman Economic Development Coalition is “not taking a position on the turnpike,” but he believes the Indian Hills Road turnpike could benefit Norman because it would bridge the city to Will Rogers Airport. SEC football teams will fly their Boeing 737s — which Max Westheimer likely won’t ever support, he said — into Oklahoma City. A straighter path from Will Rogers to Norman would likely help hotels in Norman acquire visiting SEC teams’ business.
“We're focused on bringing more money in,” Lawrence said. “(SEC teams) come in, and they spend their money in the restaurants and hotels and gas and RV parks and all of that kind of stuff, and then they're gone in three days. That's an infusion of outside money. And so sports is a big deal, especially SEC sports.”
Anticipation for Norman and OU’s SEC future has only increased since the announcement of the 2024 transition and those involved with the Norman Economic Development Coalition are excited about the direction of its initiatives.
“I'm most impressed by the level of organization that has come about as a result of Lawrence and Elizabeth’s leadership,” Patton said. “I'm most impressed by the level of engagement that you have from multiple constituents in the community — not just the chamber, not just (the Norman Economic Development Coalition), but having the university at the table, having other players at the table from the very, very beginning, is a level of engagement and commitment that is just really impressive.
“And I think it’s exciting for the potential of its efforts for the city of Norman. And so we've got political leadership, you’ve got business leadership, you’ve got community leadership, you’ve got leadership from the university all sitting down trying to figure out how best to support growth and development in the city of Norman.
“That potential is enormous.”
This story was edited by Jillian Taylor. Francisco Gutierrez and Alexandra Powell-Lorentzatos copy edited this story.
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