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2008
- REI opens office in Lawton, Oklahoma
2007
- Native American Business Enterprise Center opened in Tulsa
- REI opened office in Alva
- REI is top CDC for 504 approvals
- FTZ #227 expansion underway
- 5th Annual Biz Conference and Expo held
- RCDI grant for training program to pkg. RD direct loans
- 25th Anniversary celebration
- Individual Development Accounts - matched savings plan to help employees purchase a home
- Russian delegation visits to inquire about our incubators
- Tom Seth Smith - OSU Distinguished Alumni Awardv
- JOBS grant ($25,000) to establish western OK office
- Portable computer lab - RBOG award
- JOLI (Jobs for Low Income Individuals) Award
- Product and Process Fair goes statewide
- Bennington incubator/housing projects underway
- Online Trade Show launched on REI website
- Award of $600,000 from Office of Community Services, U.S. Dept of Human Services for Food Enterprise Development Center (kitchen incubator)
- A 15,000 sq. ft. multi-use facility built. Project funded by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Econ. Dev. Administration
- REI New Markets Investment, LLC submits application for $100 million tax credit allocation
- WBC in Oklahoma City announced; open house held June 12
- Paul Renfrow comes on board as REI board member
2006
- REI top CDC for SBA's fiscal year for 504 loan approvals
- Tom Seth Smith elected to Durant Area Chamber of Commerce board of directors
- Tom Seth Smith attends Sr. Executives in State and Local Government, Harvard University through a scholarship of Fannie Mae
- Dena Sherrill elected to Affordable Housing Advisory Council of FHLB, Topeka, KS
- Sherry Harlin celebrates 25th employment anniversary at REI
- Tom Seth Smith - elected to Board of Trustees of Eastern Oklahoma State College
- Sherry Harlin elected to National Business Incubation Association board of directors
- Sherry Harlin elected to Oklahoma community Institute board of directors
- REI awarded RBOG grant for $36,749 for an On-line Trade Show for incubator tenants and graduates
- REI top CDC for SBA's fiscal year for 504 loan approvals
- REI receives award for expansion of FTZ #227
- REI receives award from SBA to expand Women's Business Center statewide
- Market Rate Housing Program announced
- New Markets Tax Credit Impact Study completed by Economic Impact Group, LLC
2005
- Second NMTC Allocation - $56 million
- Rev Tech – Coalgate incubator open house
- REI's Rural Women's Business Center Partners with Seminole State College to establish a Rural Business and Resources Center
- REI opens office in Oklahoma City
- Employer-Assisted Housing Program introduced
- Kenny Simpson, REI Executive Vice President, named to New Markets Tax Credit Coalition Board
- 5th annual Golf & Striper Festival attracted 20 site locators
- Kenny Simpson, REI Executive Vice President, celebrates 15 years of employment with the organization
- Rural Economic Development Initiative announced
- REI opens office in Tulsa
- Sweden delegation visits REI business incubators
- First Foreign Trade Zone sub-zone established in Ardmore, OK for Valero Energy Corp.
2004
- Rural Community Development Initiative $394,000 from Rural Development
- HUD awards grant to REI for EAH Initiative
- RBEG awarded to Bennington to expand business incubator – Rev Tech
- First New Markets Tax Credit project – Linen King, Midwest City
- CDC territory restriction lifted for the SBA 504 lending program
- Bob Scully retires after more than 12 years. Richard “Dick” Kanenchen assumes duties of media consultant for REI.
2003
- First Economic Development Summit hosted by REI for Congressman Frank Lucas
- First Economic Development Summit hosted in McAlester for Congressman Brad Carson
- First annual Summer Summit with Sen. Jay Paul Gumm
- 4th Annual Golf & Striper Festival attracted 15 site selection people
- First Women’s Biz Conference & Expo held in McAlester
- New Markets Tax Credit Allocation of $80 million
- REI publishes is first ten year Impact Report
- $700,000 from OCS for construction of Enterprise Center and Incubator to house RWBC
- Tom Seth Smith - Federal Home Loan Bank of Topeka board reappointment
2002
- REI celebrates 20th anniversary. Over the past 20 years, REI has secured over $200 million for rural Oklahoma small businesses
- Phase I of construction on Wes Watkins Global Distribution Complex completed and international firm moves in
2001
- Tom Seth Smith named President and CEO
- REI celebrated three new incubator businesses with open house – Secure West Consultants, Inc.; Staff One; TotalNet Management
- Groundbreaking – Wes Watkins Global Distribution Complex
- Rural Women’s Business center opens
2000
- First international company locates in Durant FTZ
- Third rural housing bond issue for $33.5 million
- Construction completed on Rural Service Incubator/International Trade & Incubation Center – REI’s first technology-based business incubator
- First Golf and Striper Festival took place – joint effort of rural Oklahoma communities and organizations to better acquaint site selection consultants with southeastern Oklahoma
1990s
- REI awarded $1.5 million as a CDFI
- REI announces the Mortgage Credit Certificate Program
- Second rural housing bond issue for $25 million
- Foreign Trade Zone #227 accomplished
- First rural housing bond issue for $12.5 million
- REI locates to new headquarters at 2912 Enterprise Blvd within FTZ
- REI receives “State Model of Excellence Award” presented by the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. SBA
- REI received Grant of Authority of Foreign Trade Zone #227 on January 27, 1998
- REI moves to 2912 Enterprise Boulevard after 14 years at Cessna Street
- Rural Business Incubator and Foreign Trade Zone Center were completed
- Sherry Harlin becomes new Business Development Director
- Grant of Authority awarded for Foreign Trade Zone Center in rural Oklahoma by the Foreign Trade Zone Board, Washington, D.C.
- REI becomes issuer of a bond program to help provide affordable housing for the rural Oklahoma workforce in 72 counties.
- Name change to RURAL ENTERPRISES OF OKLAHOMA, INC.
- REI awarded grant for Advancement of Rural Manufacturers project, equipment program for manufacturers employing 25 or less in a 25 county area
- REI added 15 new counties to its existing 25-county service area for the IRP
- REI was designated as a Community Development Financial Institution by the U.S. Department of Treasury in September 19, 1996
- First equipment program – for incubator tenants only; later expanded to other rural manufatturers
- SBA microloan introduced
- REI initiated two major programs to assist small businesses and industry in rural Oklahoma – the Microloan Program of the U.S. SBA and an Equipment Pool Project through the Office of Community Services Discretionary Grants Program. These programs will assist entrepreneurs in starting or strengthening their small businesses
- REI has been designated to work with sub-agents for the Oklahoma Alliance of Manufacturing Excellence to assist small to medium-sized businesses
1980s
- Tom Seth Smith becomes Executive Director
- Intermediary Relending Program through Farmers Home Administration (now Rural Development)
- REI MERGER WITH CENTRAL INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS CENTER (CIAC), which brought to the organization an expanded territory of the Central States. Through CIAC, information was available from NASA and DOE technical databases and over 500 commercial databases.
- ITRAD and REDC merged – Rural Enterprises Incorporated was born!
- REI began operating the first three business incubators (Atoka, Hugo and McAlester)
- REI headquarters located at 422 Cessna at Durant’s Industrial Airpark
- RURAL ENTERPRISES DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION (REDC) established and became a Certified Development Company of the U.S. Small Business Administration
- Industrial Technology Research and Development Center (ITRAD) was formed to further extend the fostering of industrial and economic growth through the practical application of technology innovation. ITRAD sought inventors, etc. funded by government grants, corporate and private contributions.
1977
- Technology Utilization and Study Center (TUSC) at Southeastern Oklahoma State University – formed to foster the economy of 24 economically depressed rural Oklahoma counties. Project funded by NASA.
1960s
- Economic development efforts included a Technology Use Study Center of the Kiamichi Economic Development District of Oklahoma (KEDDO)
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