When economic development opportunity knocks in the Tulsa region, area leaders say their secret sauce is teamwork.

“When a company comes in, they want to see everybody get along,” Dave Stewart, chief administrative officer of MidAmerica Industrial Park in Pryor, said of welcoming site selectors. “That’s one of our huge assets.

“…We’re all friends. We all work together. They don’t see that everywhere, but they see it in Oklahoma. At the end of the day, everything we hear is that we really enjoyed being here and enjoyed the collaboration that you have and the willingness to get things done.”

Stewart’s remarks accentuated a panel discussion on regional partnerships Thursday at the Tulsa Regional Chamber’s State of the Economy & Tulsa’s Future Annual Meeting before close to 500 attendees at the Renaissance Tulsa Hotel & Convention Center.

He participated alongside panelists Meggie Froman-Knight, executive director of Claremore Economic Development, Amber Miller, vice president of economic development of the Broken Arrow Economic Development Corporation and panel moderator Andy McMillan, director of economic development and special projects for Cherokee Nation Enterprises. 

The audience also heard global and national economic breakdowns from JPMorgan Private Bank’s Joe Sedyl (senior markets economist), who was part of a moderated discussion with Eric Sullivan, and a state/local analysis from Mark Snead, Ph.D., an economist and president of RegionTrack. 

Miller said the Tulsa region’s spirit of collaboration was best illustrated two years ago when Zeeco, a global manufacturer of combustion and environmental equipment, said it was moving its headquarters from Broken Arrow to Tulsa.

“Some people may have seen that as a loss for Broken Arrow and a win for Tulsa,” she said. “But a win for Tulsa is a win for Broken Arrow. A win for Broken Arrow is a win for the Tulsa region.

“That relocation allowed (Zeeco) to grow and expand at the Broken Arrow campus and create the (roughly 200,000-square-foot) global technology center. A lot of innovation is happening in Broken Arrow as a result that headquarters moving just 10 minutes down the road.”

The Chamber helps sew those unifying threads through Tulsa’s Future, the organization’s regional economic development partnership.

In 2025, Tulsa’s Future reported it generated 2,639 jobs and $7.3 billion in capital investment. Since Tulsa’s Future inception in 2005, it has assisted in the creation of more than 85,600 jobs and more than $15.3 billion in capital investment.

“When we talk about how some of our initiatives impact the Tulsa region, we must first recognize that none of our economic assets exists in isolation,” Froman-Knight said. “And so, because of that, through the greater contributions of each of our communities to that strategy, then we have success.”

Snead and Seydl painted largely optimistic views of the local and national economies.

Snead said he anticipates income gains outpacing inflation, which he projects will move below 2.5% by the end of 2026. He added that there is limited chance of a technical recession next year.

As for the United States, Sedyl said the artificial intelligence-tech boom will continue in ’26 and the country’s housing market could remain depressed because of a lack of affordability for buyers and existing homeowners locked in with low mortgage rates.

Tariffs, too, are digging in their heels, he said.

“The tariff rate will probably settle around where it is right now; that’s 16 percent,” Seydl said. “That’s our expectation.

“I don’t think that investors and businesses should think that tariffs will go away. I think they are structurally here to stay.”

{Related Story: Tulsa's Future releases 2025 annual report}