Growth Changes the Question

By: J. David Chapman, PhD, / September 11, 2026

I attended the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber's State of the Region luncheon this week at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. I expected to hear about economic development, jobs and the continued growth of Central Oklahoma. I heard all of that. But I came away thinking about something slightly different.

For much of my lifetime, Oklahoma City's challenge has been figuring out how to grow. It appears to me that the more important question today is how we handle the growth that is already coming.

‍Central Oklahoma now accounts for 44 percent of Oklahoma's GDP, and the ten-county region is adding as many as 17,000 new residents a year. Those are numbers worth celebrating. But every one of those new residents needs someplace to live, someplace to work and a way to get between the two.

That makes growth a real estate story. New residents mean more houses and apartments. New employers mean offices, warehouses, laboratories and manufacturing facilities. All of them create demand for retail, restaurants and services. And underneath everything are the roads, transit, water, sewer and other infrastructure that allow a metropolitan area to function.

One theme I heard repeatedly at the luncheon was connectivity. Oklahoma Secretary of Transportation Tim Gatz said we need "every tool in the toolbox." That includes continuing to improve highways such as I-35, but it also means expanding transportation choices, including the Heartland Flyer and the proposed ONE Transit commuter rail system.

That matters because transportation and land use are inseparable. Where we build transportation infrastructure influences where people live, where companies invest and ultimately where real estate values grow. Oklahoma City still has something many metropolitan areas have lost: relatively easy mobility. The challenge is preserving that advantage as the region grows.

The upcoming 2028 Olympics will put an international spotlight on Oklahoma City, but this is about much more than a few weeks of international visitors. Decisions we make now about infrastructure, development and connectivity will influence Central Oklahoma for decades.

For years, we wanted growth. We got it. Now comes the harder, and perhaps more exciting, part: deciding what kind of region we want that growth to create. As Gatz told the audience, "The crossroads is here." From a real estate perspective, I couldn't agree more.

Dr. J. David Chapman is Chair of Finance & Professor of Real Estate at the University of Central Oklahoma (jchapman7@uco.edu).