LAWTON — Lawton took another step forward Thursday toward bringing a cobalt refinery to town.
The Lawton City Council voted unanimously to approve a redevelopment agreement with the Delaware-based company Westwin Elements, which plans to build a refinery in the industrial park on the west side of town. The council’s decision came less than an hour after the Lawton Economic Development Authority signed off on the agreement.
Westwin Elements has pledged to start building the first phase of the $450 million refinery, which will be flexible enough to process cobalt, nickel and other minerals, by Dec. 31. Construction of the first phase, which will cost about $150 million, must be finished within 18 months.
Westwin’s decision to set up shop in Lawton will bolster the city’s economic fortunes, said Councilman Randy Warren.
“We’re talking about – not the ancillary jobs, not the other jobs that are going to be added because we have more population – but just the payroll from that entity per year is about $230 million at its five-year fully employed,” he said. “That’s going to have a tremendous effect on Lawton and on southwest Oklahoma.”
Councilman Allan Hampton said the decision will affect several Lawton residents for generations to come.
“There’s only so much money in our community, and it kind of passes through everybody’s hands and then just circulates,” he said. “I think that this is going to be an injection of a lot of money in our community, which means there’s going to be more circulation.”
Councilwoman Linda Chapman said she wanted to thank the different entities who had worked on the project.
“We’ve been promising, ‘Something’s coming, something’s coming,’” she said. “And it’s here.”
Economic development package
The council approved basic terms for the project, nicknamed “Project Blue Braveheart,” in August 2022.
The city of Lawton, the Lawton Economic Development Authority and the Comanche County Industrial Development Authority assembled a $24 million economic development package to attract Westwin, which calls for the city to provide a $10 million forgivable loan to the company. The CCIDA will supply an additional $2 million loan for the project.
The CCIDA will also deed over to Westwin approximately 480 acres of property south of West Lee Boulevard and west of Goodyear Boulevard, which is valued at $12 million.
The city will provide water and sewer lines, which will cost about $7.5 million, for the plant. The property will be put in a tax increment financing district managed by the Lawton Economic Development Authority, and the city will use tax revenues from the TIF district to pay for the new water and sewer lines.
The local financial assistance will be placed in escrow, and it will not be released until Westwin has secured and provided evidence of $126 million in development financing. That money may be spent only on redevelopment.
Westwin has pledged to create 2,335 jobs over the first five years of operation, said former Deputy City Manager Richard Rogalski, who is currently serving as the city’s economic-development consultant. He said those jobs will come with a starting salary of approximately $100,000 a year.
“The assistance that we provided in this agreement – the $24 million assistance – is provided as a forgivable loan,” Rogalski said. “So, that job creation has to be performed for that loan to be forgiven. If they do not meet those requirements, they have to pay us back after year six of that development.”
The agreement calls for Westwin to generate 200 jobs in the first year of operation and add more positions each year over five years. The company is expected to generate at least 2,335 jobs by the fifth year.
Those jobs will create an additional 2,500 ancillary jobs for a total of about 5,000 new positions, Rogalski said. He estimated that those jobs will generate about $380 million in salaries each year, in addition to approximately $3 million to $4 million in annual sales tax revenues.
“So, there is real tax money coming to our community that will increase our tax base,” he said. “It’s going to increase everybody’s tax base.”
Reactions
News of the project drew mixed reactions from people in the audience.
Lawton resident Mike McKee said he has researched Westwin and spoken with company officials, and he believes the refinery will benefit Lawton and the entire region.
“Lawton’s economy will absolutely explode in the most positive way we’ve seen since 1972,” he said.
But Lawton resident William Dirks said he was concerned that Westwin did not have the experience required to manage a refinery. He added that Westwin’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings indicate that the company was incorporated less than a year ago.
“This business has no evidence that they are successful or can be successful in this field,” he said.
Former Mayor Fred Fitch, who serves on the Lawton Economic Development Authority, acknowledged that Westwin CEO KaLeigh Long has not managed a refinery before. But he said Long has hired an expert in the field to build and run the plant.
“He is wanted all over the world for the expertise that he can bring to a country or a community or whatever,” Fitch said.