Council receives FISTA update, notes better than expected performance

The Fires Innovation Science and Technology Center Accelerator Development Trust Authority’s efforts to recruit defense contractors are starting to pay off, the organization’s chairman said Tuesday.

Two contractors, Dynetics Technical Solutions and Nemean Solutions, will set up shop in the Business Integration Center at Central Mall, FISTA Trust Authority Chairman Clarence Fortney told the Lawton City Council. The companies will stay in the Business Integration Center until the new Innovation Park, which will be located on the sites where the Sears and Dillard’s stores used to stand, is ready for tenants.

At that point, the contractors will move into the Innovation Park.

Dynetics already has two employees in the BIC and will hire four to six more people within the next couple of weeks, and Nemean has two staffers on site, Fortney said.

“Right now, we have four employees. These are our first four employees,” he said. “And this is the first time we’ve been able to announce the companies by name.”

The city council created the FISTA Authority in August 2020 to help recruit defense contractors, high-tech industries and innovative businesses to the area. The goal is to attract companies that can support the U.S. Army’s Cross-Functional Teams at Fort Sill, which focus on long-range precision fires and air and missile defense.

Recruiting defense companies is only part of the FISTA Authority’s mission. Other tasks include creating the FISTA Innovation Park in the mall, which will promote collaboration between the tech industry and defense-related organizations, and fostering discussions among local, state and national leaders about Fort Sill’s Cross-Functional Teams and their needs.

The authority’s ultimate goal is to boost economic development by attracting more high-tech, well-paying jobs to the area.

The authority bought Central Mall for approximately $14.45 million in January and tapped Insight Commercial Real Estate Brokerage’s management division, InTouch, to oversee the mall’s retail operations. Plans are for the mall to house a mix of defense-related companies and retail businesses.

Retail revenue will cover debt service on the authority’s loan from Bank of Oklahoma, which financed the purchase.

Authority officials thought it would be at least two years before the mall began turning a profit so the authority could begin collecting money to pay the debt service on the loan, Fortney said. But he said cash flow from retail operations is better than expected so far.

“We didn’t think we would actually start getting this money until two years – approximately two years in the process,” he said. “But now, we’re collecting that money and, as I said, putting that money into that holding account."