Wind speed is the first number we ask for in Moore. Before bay spacing, before door count, before price, the engineer needs the design wind load, because a building here has to be drawn by people who know what the sky can do. We design pre-engineered steel buildings for the loads your site requires, specify rated doors and fasteners, and erect them with crews who brace the frame as they go. If you want a warehouse, a shop or a storage building in Moore, that is where the conversation starts.
The market is moving, though, and not slowly. In June 2026 the state commerce department announced that a pharmaceutical distributor had selected the North Moore Industrial Park for a 330,000 square foot regional distribution facility, with $179 million in total capital investment and more than 200 direct jobs. A project of that scale pulls in trucking firms, packaging suppliers, cold-chain vendors and maintenance contractors, all of whom need buildings close to I-35. We build the mid-size steel space that sits around a large distribution campus, such as 15,000 to 60,000 square foot shops and storage buildings.
We are not the builder for that distribution facility, and we do not suggest otherwise. We are the contractor an owner calls when the same corridor needs a service yard, a parts warehouse or a fleet shop.
The National Weather Service rated the May 20, 2013 Newcastle-Moore tornado EF-5, with a path of about 14 miles and a maximum width of 1.1 miles, and the May 3, 1999 Bridge Creek-Moore storm F5, with a 38-mile path. A May 8, 2003 F4 tornado began in Moore and ran about 17 miles through south Oklahoma City and past Tinker Air Force Base. Nobody designs a commercial building to survive the core of a storm like that. What a good design does is keep ordinary severe weather, high straight-line winds and the edge of a storm from tearing apart your roof, doors or end walls.
That is a matter of details. We specify the right panel fastener pattern, tight end-wall bracing, proper anchor bolt size and embedment, and wind-rated overhead doors. We also talk with owners who want an interior shelter area. A steel building does not make a tornado shelter by default, and an engineered safe room is a separate design. If that is a priority, say so early and we will coordinate with a designer who does it.
In March 2014 the Moore City Council approved tornado-inspired residential building codes requiring new homes to withstand winds up to 135 miles per hour, with hurricane straps, bolted foundation ties, continuous plywood bracing and high-wind garage doors, a step officials said made Moore the first city to do so. Those rules apply to houses, not commercial steel, but they set the tone. Plan reviewers and inspectors in this area are used to asking questions about connections and anchorage.
Commercial permits follow the adopted building code, and the city may add its own amendments. Statewide, the International Codes apply, while many cities list their own editions. We ask the city which edition applies on the day of application and keep the stamped drawings consistent with it. We also coordinate the fire marshal for sprinklers, access lanes and egress, which matter on any building with more than a few hundred people-hours of use per week.
Moore sits on I-35 between Norman and Oklahoma City, which makes it a natural place for logistics and service businesses that want to reach both. A new Southwest 34th Street bridge over I-35 opened on November 21, 2019 after construction that began in August 2018, improving cross-highway access for trucks and workers. When we site a building, we look at how a driver gets from the highway to the dock, and the I-35 improvements make several sites more workable than they were.
Beyond distribution, the fleet and auto-service trade is strong here, along with contractors, auto and equipment services, and small manufacturers. Their buildings are different from a dock-and-rack warehouse. They need tall doors, floor drains, ventilation and an office, and often a yard that can handle parked equipment. Our warehouse and cross-dock building types cover the larger end of that range.
We set the forms, steel and bolts for the slab, place the concrete, erect the frame, hang the panels and install the doors. Because one company coordinates the whole sequence, we catch conflicts early: a door header that does not match the slab, a sprinkler line that hits a frame member, a floor drain that sits where a column will land. Owners tell us that is what they value most, since it saves them from refereeing between a steel supplier and a concrete sub.
Our work on rigid frame erection is the heart of it. A rigid frame is a column and rafter assembled into a clear-span portal, and erecting it safely in high wind season takes a careful sequence and temporary bracing. We never leave a half-built frame without it.
Moore's spring storm season shapes the schedule. If you can, we aim to have the slab poured in winter or early spring and the frame erected before the worst of the season, or we plan the erection in a window with a clear forecast. Concrete work needs dry weather, and erecting steel wants moderate wind. We monitor forecasts and shift crews when we need to.
Steel lead time and the permit run in parallel, and we give you a written estimate for both. If the city or an inspector requires a change in the middle of the job, we price it and tell you how it affects the date before we proceed. For related reading, look at the Norman and Oklahoma City pages, since many Moore owners have a second site in one of those cities.
Send us the address and the use, and we will confirm the design wind speed, the permit path and the price. We can talk through warehouse shell options on the call.
No building can be promised to survive the core of a violent tornado. We design to the wind loads the code and the engineer require, use rated doors and heavier connections, and tell you plainly what those measures do. If you need a safe room, that is a separate engineered structure and we coordinate it.
Moore may apply amendments on top of the adopted codes, and plan reviewers look closely at wind connections. We confirm the edition and any local amendments in writing before the drawings are stamped.
As close as the budget and the zoning allow, if trucks are part of your business. A longer haul adds cost on every delivery. If trucks are only occasional, a cheaper lot a mile or two away may serve you better.
Hail dents panels and can damage roof fasteners. A heavier gauge or a standing seam roof resists denting better than light exposed-fastener sheet. Ask your insurer which roofs they favor, since some carriers rate by material.
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.