Three interstates meet in Oklahoma: I-35, I-40 and I-44. The state has over 2,600 miles of Class I rail run by three railroads and one of only six BNSF Logistics Centers in the country. That is why a shipper looking at a map often lands here, and why warehouse space in the corridor between Oklahoma City and Tulsa keeps getting talked about. Our buyers in this segment are not the shippers building a million-square-foot box. They are regional distributors, wholesalers, parts houses, contract warehouse operators and growing local companies that need 20,000 to 150,000 square feet with docks, and need it faster than a developer can deliver.
These owners compare a metal building with tilt-up, with an existing lease and with building nothing. Our job is to make the comparison honest. A metal shell can be a very good warehouse, with wide clear spans, tall eaves and reasonable dock counts. It is a weaker one if the owner needs thick insulated walls everywhere, heavy racking without planning for it or an unusual dock arrangement drawn after the frame is ordered.
The rest of this page walks through how we serve distribution owners: how we plan, what the Oklahoma market looks like, where the money goes and what we watch on schedule.
We begin with the freight, not the building. How many pallets in and out per day, how tall is the rack, what kind of lift trucks run the aisles, what is the trailer mix, and how long do trucks wait at the door? From those answers come the column spacing, the clear height, the dock count and the apron depth. A warehouse metal shell sized around those numbers outperforms a bigger shell chosen by guess.
Next we draw the site. Truck courts are the expensive part of many warehouse sites, because trailer swing and queuing need space and pavement. If an owner is buying land, we want to see the survey before they close, so the dock layout and the stormwater requirements are known. When the shell design is settled, our design-build process keeps engineering, permitting and erection under one schedule.
The pace of logistics building in Oklahoma is easy to see. A national warehouse club announced a 300,000-square-foot distribution center at OKC Logistics Park, with about $40 million in capital investment and 130 long-term jobs. A pharmaceutical distributor chose the North Moore Industrial Park for a 330,000-square-foot regional facility with $179 million in total capital investment. In Pryor, a 274,000-square-foot industrial building at MidAmerica has 40-foot clear height and 40 truck docks, and it is built with tilt panels, which shows that large owners also use concrete systems.
Smaller owners have different options. Chickasha's airport authority sold 320 acres next to the airport with a first phase of 50 industrial lots of two to ten acres each planned, and lots of that size suit a 30,000 to 80,000-square-foot building well. The Tulsa Port of Catoosa sits at the head of navigation on a 445-mile waterway system, with over 4 million tons of cargo each year moving on it. Companies near the port, or in Claremore and Sapulpa, have access to barge, rail and highway in one trip.
A warehouse price is more than steel. The pad, the site utilities and the paving can equal or exceed the building on a small lot, so we show those as separate lines from the start. Inside the building, the usual cost movers are clear height, dock count, insulation, the floor slab's thickness and flatness, the fire sprinkler density that your rack and commodity require and the type of lighting.
Floor flatness is an example of a price driver that surprises people. Very narrow aisle trucks and tall racks demand a flatter floor, which means a different slab placement method and more cost. If your operation uses standard forklifts in wide aisles, you may not need it, and we will tell you so. Dock doors, levelers and seals are bought by the opening, so a 10-door building costs more than an 8-door one, but a door count below what trucks need creates a daily line at the gate.
Distribution tenants and owners usually sit in a few neighboring segments. A manufacturer shipping its own product wants the shop and the staging dock covered on our manufacturing page. Fleet operators with their own trucks may also need the buildings on our automotive and fleet page, because a distribution yard often includes a maintenance bay and a wash.
Food distributors need cold space, and cooler structures are a specialty. We build the shell and the envelope, then coordinate with refrigeration partners and our cold storage guide explains what is involved. Bulk and agricultural handlers have their own concerns, which our agribusiness page describes.
Build time depends on the steel package, the permit and the weather. For most mid-size warehouses we set the order date, the foundation start and the erection window so that doors, dock equipment and sprinkler work do not stack up at the end. Sprinkler design, in particular, can take weeks and needs the rack layout early. Delays at the end of a job are usually caused by missing decisions at the beginning.
The International Codes apply in Oklahoma, while many cities list their own editions, so a project permitted now can fall on either side of that change depending on the city and the date. We confirm the adopted edition early and tell you if it changes the loads, the egress or the sprinkler requirements. For tenant improvements and later expansions, we leave the end wall designed to be moved, which turns future growth into a smaller project.
Warehouse owners often add pieces later. A mezzanine over the dock area for office or picking space is common, and our mezzanine and platform work ties it to the same structure. When the business grows, the next step is usually an addition sized for the next trailer count. We plan the end wall and the site so that addition is possible without tearing out the first dock.
For owners who want a first look at a simple shell, the warehouse building type page lists typical sizes and options. From there we are glad to run through your numbers.
Send pallet counts, rack height and trucks per day. We will return a layout, a budget range and the schedule items that decide your opening date.
It depends on how high you stack. Count the top of the highest pallet load, add room for sprinkler heads and the clearance your fire code requires, then add the structure depth. Many owners find 24 to 32 feet works for rack, while floor stacking needs less. We confirm with the sprinkler designer before we order.
Not always either way. Tilt-up walls are heavier and offer built-in fire resistance and thermal mass, while metal buildings are quicker for many sizes and more flexible to expand. For smaller and mid-size footprints, the metal shell usually wins on schedule. We will give both a fair look if you ask.
Start with the number of trucks per day at the peak hour and how long each stays at the dock. A rough count is a door for every truck waiting, plus a door or two of margin. It is cheaper to add rough openings now than to cut walls later.
Yes. Many owners build the first frames and leave the end wall designed to be removed, then add bays when business grows. Planning the future footing and utility stub-outs now keeps the second phase cheap.
For nearly every new warehouse, yes. The survey shows setbacks and easements, and the soil report tells us how to design the slab and the paving. Both are small costs compared with a redesign after the order.
Tell us about the site, the building and the schedule, and we will set up a review of scope, schedule and permitting.
See the services, building types and industries we plan and manage across Oklahoma.