We’re delving into more of the intimate details of the recently announced data center a California businessman wants to build in Chickasha.
It potentially could become the first complex to actually create its own power source as part of Oklahoma’s new “behind the meter” law.
Details are courtesy of Mike Ray with the Southwest Ledger.
By Mike W. Ray
Southwest Ledger
Gov. Kevin Stitt joined local leaders in Chickasha June 5 to unveil plans for a new industrial park and power generation initiative – projects that will constitute the largest single private investment in the city’s history.
Developer Chet Hitt envisions construction of an electricity generating plant fueled by natural gas and intended to power a data center on land he bought recently in the Chickasha Airport Industrial Park.
The financial investment in the combined project might total $3.5 billion or more “but its operations won’t cost the ratepayers anything,” Hitt told Southwest Ledger.
The project will be a landmark joint venture between Citizen Capital and Lightfield Energy, a partnership led by Bond Payne and Billy Sorenson. Lightfield Energy will build the power plant and Citizen Capital will be the financing agent. Energy Transfer will connect the power generation plant to at least one of two high-pressure natural-gas lines buried “fairly close to the airport land,” Hitt said.
Payne is the founder and executive chairman of Citizen Capital, a global investment firm and merchant bank headquartered in Oklahoma City. In 2020-22 Payne served as chief of staff to Governor Stitt, where he led the state’s strategy for economic development, infrastructure, and foreign investment in Oklahoma.
He also has familial connections with Chickasha. His great-grandfather, Stephen Homer Bond, was a dentist in Chickasha. His grandmother, Katheryne Bond Payne, lived in Chickasha before attending the University of Oklahoma and marrying Bond Payne’s grandfather, W.T. Payne, a pioneering oilman.
Sorenson is the founder and chief executive officer of Lightfield Energy, a national leader in commercial and utility-scale power development and is based in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Their project will deliver “innovative, behind-the-meter power generation solutions to meet the energy demands of high-load industries,” including data centers, critical minerals processing, and advanced manufacturing, officials said.
“Our partnership with Lightfield Energy represents a strategic investment for national security, critical supply chains, energy independence, and economic development,” Payne said.
“This joint venture is about creating scalable energy solutions that will rapidly support the data infrastructure of the future and ensure America’s standing as both technology and energy leader,” Sorenson said.
It was announced in March that Google has applied to build an artificial intelligence data center campus in Stillwater that will be powered by Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co.; Google also has a data center in the Mid-America Industrial Park that’s powered by the Grand River Dam Authority; and Polaris Technologies officials announced last year that the company planned to invest $100 million to construct a 200-megawatt Bitcoin mining facility at Port Muskogee’s John T. Griffin Industrial Park that will draw electricity from OG&E, which has a 1,7616 megawatt generating station just north of Muskogee and a 1,000 MW substation built near the Polaris site.
According to Jim Cowan, director of the Chickasha Economic Development Council, the state Commerce Department “has been contacted about seven data centers that want to come to Oklahoma.”
‘Chickasha’s emergence’
“This is a transformative moment for Chickasha and for Oklahoma,” Stitt said. “With this industrial park and innovative energy partnership, we are creating the infrastructure and environment to attract business and talent intended to make Oklahoma a Top 10 state.”
Cowan pointed to the potential regional impact of Hitt’s project. “This investment will set Chickasha apart and establish us as a national destination for business and innovation,” he said.
“This is a step that will bring opportunity, growth, and future prosperity to our community,” said Hitt. The Apple Valley, California, native owns a house in Chickasha and has invested an estimated $4 million in multiple commercial redevelopment projects in downtown Chickasha – primarily the $1.4 million renovation of the 123-year-old Savoy Hotel and the nearby Mill Building – in the past two and a half years.
“The joint venture and the new industrial park signal Chickasha’s emergence as a significant player in Oklahoma’s economic landscape,” said Hitt.
“We’re proud to have partnered with the Governor and our community leaders to recruit and support new businesses, bringing jobs and opportunities to our residents,” Chickasha Mayor Zach Grayson said.
Plans for 280 acres
Hitt said the power plant and data center will be built on 200 of the 280 acres he bought from the Chickasha Municipal Airport Authority.
“We’re going to give rapid approval” to projects of this type, President Trump said in a recorded interview. The federal government will issue emergency declarations “without having to go through years of regulation, so they can start building almost immediately.”
“When government gets out of the way, that’s when magic happens,” Stitt said.
Payne said the electric generation plant will produce more than 500 megawatts of power. That’s because data centers require at least that much electricity, Sorenson told the Ledger.
“We are seeking customers for that power, and once we secure contracts we will move forward,” Payne said.
The generation plant will be constructed in phases, Sorenson said. “We’d like to start the first phase in 18 to 24 months, and then it will take another two and a half years. We’ll be putting on 125 to 150 megawatts of power every six months.”
Hitt told the Ledger he paid $1.358 million for the 280 acres – $4,850 per acre – and closed on the property June 3.
For several years, that city-owned tax-exempt acreage has been leased for $400 per year for agriculture; it would take Chickasha 3,395 years of rentals at that rate to generate that much money on that acreage. The lease expires June 30, city officials said.
The sale involved surface rights only, not mineral rights, which are retained by the CMAA.
Hitt said he plans to subdivide the remaining 80 acres into several lots that will be marketed for commercial and industrial sale. He said he’s already had a conversation with one local manufacturer that’s considering expansion. And Cowan said he was approached last fall by an Oklahoma City company owner who indicated an interest in establishing a business in Chickasha.
The 80 acres could support approximately 40 to 50 buildings of various dimensions, Hitt said, and he plans to build at least one ‘spec’ building to start. “We plan to be under construction in the next six months or less,” he said.
Businesses tell economic development directors that primarily “they want utilities and they want a building that’s ready to occupy,” Cowan said.
Approximately 300 people assembled June 5 in and around a tent set up in the middle of those 280 acres of land, on which a wheat crop is growing. “Chet Hitt is a visionary,” Cowan said. “Instead of seeing a wheat field, he saw what can happen tomorrow.”
“When we saw this land, we saw an opportunity,” Hitt said.
Recruitment trip planned to Calif.
Hitt also plans to fly to California “within the next three months” to make a pitch to dozens of business owners in ‘the Golden State,’ and Governor Stitt has indicated he will tag along. “We’re going into [California Governor] Gavin Newsom’s back yard to recruit business,” Hitt said – and has labeled the upcoming trip “Governor Stitt’s Oklahoma Land Run 2.0”.
“Our target group will be manufacturers, because those are the higher-paying jobs,” Hitt said. Companies that create 50 to 100 jobs qualify for state incentives. “We have worked with the Commerce Department on this plan for months to determine what can be offered to companies that relocate to Oklahoma.”
One inducement is the Quality Jobs Incentive Program, which provides quarterly cash payments up to 5% of new payrolls for up to 10 years. Companies must achieve an average wage threshold and $2.5 million in new annual payrolls within three years to qualify.
Another state incentive is a rebate. When any company that sets up shop on Hitt’s acreage in the Airport Industrial Park creates a minimum of 50 jobs, the price they paid for the land will be refunded by the Commerce Department, he said.
Hitt is convinced his recruitment trip will be successful because of California’s high tax rates and high costs for property and workers’ compensation insurance, labor, construction materials, housing, and motor fuels. The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in California on June 4 was $4.76, and for premium gasoline it was $5.15, according to AAA.
“Perhaps some machine shops” could be lured to the industrial park land for training sponsored by the local Canadian Valley Technology Center campus, Mayor Grayson said previously.
Hitt’s plans for development of the 80 acres could produce 3,000 or more jobs for small manufacturers and other companies, he believes. “A rough ‘rule of thumb’ is one job for every 1,000 square feet,” he said. Eighty acres encompass 3,484,800 square feet.
And those employees will buy houses, fuel, food and clothing, and pay sales and property taxes. Seven new housing developments are in the planning stage or already under construction in Chickasha, Cowan noted.
But if several thousand new jobs are created, the town will need more housing, more water and sewer lines, and a reliable source of potable water.
“The City of Chickasha needs a master plan to prepare for what’s coming,” Hitt said.
“If you’re not on the train, buy a ticket because we’re on the track, full speed ahead!” Grayson told the crowd.
3 measures approved to prepare for change
The City Council approved three measures June 2 that were intended to prepare Chickasha for major changes anticipated from the airport industrial park development.
City Manager Jim Crosby was authorized to draft a consulting agreement with COalign Group founder Cathy O’Connor.
She will assist the city “in connection with incentives for economic development projects,” and will research the requirements for grant applications “to fund infrastructure improvements to support” anticipated development in the airport industrial park.
COAlign will be paid $10,000 initially and $5,000 each month their services are required.
“This allows the city manager to negotiate” a consulting contract, Councilman John Smith said. And that document “would have to come back to the council for approval,” Crosby said.
“We want to be in a position to strike when the iron is hot,” Grayson said.
The council approved an agreement with The Public Finance Law Group (PFLG), based in Oklahoma City, which will assist city officials with creation of the city’s third tax increment/incentive finance (TIF) district.
“We need to establish a TIF that would be beneficial to development in the area and would provide an avenue to repay the city for any improvements that may be needed in the area,” the council was advised.
For example, Hitt has asked the City of Chickasha to build a couple of roads in the industrial park, extend water and sewer lines and provide the requisite water meters. “The airport is city owned and water sales are their primary revenue producer,” he explained.
When the airport industrial park was established, a mile-long two-lane paved road with curb and gutter was built; a waterline was installed in the easement of that road, along with two fire hydrants; and an abbreviated sewer line was constructed, according to Darren Martin, the city’s chief building official.
PFLG will be paid $50,000, payable at the rate of $12,500 monthly for four months, and $30,000 will be due immediately after the council establishes the TIF district.
Also approved was an agreement with Halff Associates for professional engineering services. The company has offices in Oklahoma and five other states.
Halff worked with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation on the new concrete trail planned in Shannon Springs Park, company representative DeShawn Heusel informed the city council.
Ms. Heusel told Southwest Ledger that her grandparents were reared in Chickasha and an aunt lives in Chickasha.
CMAA’s choice: ‘grow grass or jobs’
The City Council, acting as the Chickasha Municipal Airport Authority (CMAA), voted Dec. 16, 2024, to sell Hitt an undeveloped half-section of land “next door to” Chickasha’s municipal airport.
That night, Cowan said the CMAA’s choice of whether to sell the property was really quite simple: “Do you want to grow grass or do you want to grow jobs?” The land “was developed for that purpose 25 years ago,” city officials said.
The airfield is four miles northwest of town. The 322 acres of “vacant land being used for agricultural purposes” are located approximately half a mile west of US-81 highway and 1,321 linear feet north of Airport Road.
Belatedly a title search revealed that Hitt could acquire only 280 acres. While in the title review process it was discovered that 42 acres were owned by the Chickasha Industrial Authority (CIA), not the Airport Authority. Reportedly a City Hall staffer knew about the discrepancy but never mentioned it to the city manager.
In a resolution adopted June 2, the CMAA approved the conveyance of those other acres from the CIA to the CMAA.
The Chickasha Industrial Authority “desires to convey the property to the Chickasha Municipal Airport Authority by Quit Claim Deed in order to clarify and confirm title in favor of the CMAA, thereby advancing one of the express purposes of the Trust: to promote industrial development within and beyond the territorial limits of the beneficiary municipality, enhance employment opportunities, and support the economic growth of both the beneficiary and the State of Oklahoma,” the resolution relates.
All proceeds from the sale of the airport land “will go into the CMAA for future airport investment and development,” Martin told the City Council last December.
Those could include projects such as constructing a new terminal to replace the one that was erected approximately 20 years ago, and demolishing a hangar erected eight decades ago when Chickasha was training pilots for military duty in World War II.
Chickasha officials have been eyeing a $1 million matching grant from the Oklahoma Department of Aerospace and Aeronautics (ODAA) to pay for a new airport terminal. The Federal Aviation Administration wants that terminal to be built where the WW II-era hangar is located, Martin said.
A new terminal “is on the five-year plan that was presented to the ODAA, along with a hangar project,” Martin said. The Airport Board and the CMAA “agreed to both of those projects.”
