With Google And Gatorade Plants, Tiny Okla. Town Is On The Map

PRYOR, Okla. (AP) _ This is a town that didn't have its own Web page until last year, where it's considered cool if your kids belong to a youth group and the mayor is proud to show off a poster

Sunday, August 19th 2007, 1:59 pm

By: News On 6

PRYOR, Okla. (AP) _ This is a town that didn't have its own Web page until last year, where it's considered cool if your kids belong to a youth group and the mayor is proud to show off a poster of the Ten Commandments he keeps pinned to his paneled office wall.

This northeastern Oklahoma community of 9,200 has a definite small-town feel, but it has also had some big success in economic development over the past couple years.

Google plans a data center here and the largest Gatorade plant in the nation is on the drawing board. No tax incentives were required.

Sales tax collections are strong, hotels have popped up outside of town and middle-class housing developments are also planned.

Last month, Pryor played host to the inaugural Rocklahoma music festival, rolling out the red carpet for 1980s bands like Twisted Sister, Slaughter and Poison _ and nearly 100,000 fans.

``We've got more projects going on than a dog has fleas,'' jokes third-term mayor Jimmy Tramel. ``Pryor was just this little hick town, then Gatorade announced. That was a tipping point.''

Last year, PepsiCo Inc. announced plans for a manufacturing and distribution plant that will produce Gatorade Thirst Quencher and Propel Fitness Water.

The $180 million investment will create nearly 300 jobs. Workers will make about $15 an hour there.

And this spring, Internet giant Google Inc. said it would spend $600 million to build a data center here, creating up to 200 more jobs. Full-time employees will average $48,000 in salary.

Pryor's rural feel and low-crime rate have made the area attractive, and the MidAmerica Industrial Park has helped with business growth.

The former Army ammunition factory outside of town is the nation's largest rural industrial park, where some 80 businesses share land with swaths of farm fields and beef cattle.

Companies there churn out everything from commercial dish washers to tissue paper. To drive by, you'd think it nothing spectacular: a group of nondescript warehouses painted eggshell white.

But to the Googles and Gatorades of the world searching for the right spot to locate, it has the advantages of abundant, cheap water, cut-rate electricity and easy access to railroad, highway or air transportation.

Add to it that hubs like Kansas City, Mo., Dallas, Wichita, Kan., and Little Rock, Ark., are each less than 300 miles away. Tulsa is 45 miles to the west.

``It's one-stop shopping,'' declares Sanders Mitchell, administrator at MidAmerica for the past 17 years.

Founded in 1960, MidAmerica is operated by a public trust charged with creating jobs and helping attract and grow companies at its 9,000-acre site. The trust accepts no federal or state tax dollars to operate and makes money through land and utility sales and building rent.

And, the kicker: it gets companies to locate here without shelling out money just for the privilege, nearly unheard in today's business world.

``A lot of towns throw out the cash, but once you start, you can't stop,'' says Mitchell, who locked in a handshake deal for the Google plant eight months before the deal was officially announced. ``We tell companies upfront, if you can't come here and not make money, then don't come here.''

The recent payoff also stems from good planning. Instead of hunkering down and waiting out the economic downturn after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, MidAmerica invested millions in its infrastructure, adding new water lines, sewer upgrades and strengthening its airport runway.

When business bounced back, Pryor was ready for it.

``We're sitting up here in the corner of the state, out of sight, out of mind,'' Mitchell says. ``People don't pay attention to us because we're not Tulsa or Oklahoma City.''

Today, people are taking notice: a recent job fair at the industrial park attracted nearly 2,000 applicants.

While the real estate market is squeezing folks out of metropolitan markets or flat out tanking across the country, it's doing steady business here. You can buy a new, four-bedroom house east of town starting at $135,000.

The chamber of commerce uses the cliche of the overnight success that took 20 years to achieve.

``The one thing Pryor has, about every 20 or 30 years, someone with strong vision comes along and takes charge,'' says Ivan Pace, a jewelry shop owner and self-styled unofficial ambassador of Pryor.

Google and Gatorade have also bought into the Pryor way.

``It would be tough to find better neighbors than the ones in Pryor,'' says Google spokesman Barry Schnitt.

The town's hot streak shows no signs of slowing.

Officials are cagey, but hint they are in talks with another known company to locate here, and quickly play down the particulars.

Keeping people guessing is what seems to work.

``We're a sleeping giant,'' says Mayor Tramel. ``We're one of the best-kept secrets in the state of Oklahoma.''