A long-time figure in Denison’s business community and architect in the city’s industrial development is celebrating a quarter century of helping the city’s business community. Earlier this month, Tony Kaai celebrated his 25th anniversary as the president of the Denison Development Alliance, the economic development arm of the city.
Over the years, Kaai and the DDA have been instrumental in bringing new industrial partners to the city and helping finance many other projects throughout the community. Accomplishments under his tenure include the ongoing cleanup of the Johns Manville industrial site and the recruitment of Ruiz Foods to the city.
“The bottom line for me is, I just know that my main goal in life is to serve people. You know what I do and my staff, what they do,” Kaai said. “It is to create jobs for people and help businesses prosper and create more income and investments in the community … That’s what motivates me.”
While Kaai did not start directly in economic development, it played a part in many aspects of his career. However, it has been the key focus of his career for nearly 40 years now, including 25 years with the city of Denison.
“It absolutely does not (feel that long),” Kaai said. “Obviously, I know how long I’ve been working here, but until you stop and everyone says you’ve been here for 25 years, then you start thinking about how long 25 years is.”
Kaai started his career spending eight years working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. From there, he spent another four years working for a congressman based in the Southeast District of Oklahoma.
“When I left that job, I really got into pure economic development,” Kaai said. “I was doing economic development at the congressman’s office, alternative agriculture, in southeast Oklahoma. Then, he ran for governor and got beat, so they kind of disbanded, and that’s when I transitioned into the president of a chamber — the president of economic development of a chamber, in Cushing, Oklahoma, near Stillwater.”
It was around the year 2000 when Denison began its search for a new economic development president following the departure of its previous president. Kaai was approached by a friend who was working as a headhunter for the city and was tasked with creating a list of candidates for the role. At first Kaai said he was hesitant as it would involve moving to a smaller community.
“He was a close friend, and he’d done some other things for me, so I said, okay, and drove to Denisson and had dinner with him, and he made the pitch on behalf of Denison,” he said.
After doing some consideration, Kaai saw promise in the small city north of Dallas. Beyond its connection to the metroplex, Denison had the advantage of being directly along U.S. Highway 75 and Kaai could see promise in the economic community there.
Kaai said it didn’t take him long to get a feel for the community due, in part, to how welcoming the residents and community were. His son was in high school at the time, and this helped him integrate into the community and makes connections there, he said.
“True to Denison, it didn’t take that long because we had not been here very long and my son was a freshman in school, so many people engaged us to welcome us as a family to the city,” he said.
Upon taking the job with the city, Kaai and city leaders developed a list of about 20 bullet-point items that they would like to see accomplished with the assistance of the DDA. While it has taken time, Kaai and his team have helped accomplish most, if not all, of those priorities.
In the past 25 years, the city has built a new high school and a new home for Texoma Medical Center along U.S. Highway 75. Just north of TMC, the city has created new recreational amenities in the form of Texoma Health Foundation Park and helped recruit an event center at the Hilton Garden Inn. In more recent years, Kaai was able to cross out the redevelopment of Main Street from his list following the D3 redevelopment project.
Other priorities included the redevelopment of the JM Plant and the creation of an industrial park, which have added space for industrial development to the city.
“Those two sites added almost 400 acres of industrial and business park,” Kaai said.
Despite these successes, Kaai said economic development can be a waiting game for the right proposal to come forward and reach full development. While the DDA talks to many prospects, only a small few make it from concept to construction and development.
Among the projects that didn’t come to fruition over the years in Denison was Cardinal Glass, which ultimately developed in Durant. Despite Denison’s efforts, Kaai said Denison lacked the space for the project about 20 years ago.
“Cardinal Glass was looking at us — Denison, Sherman and Durant — and as it turned out, we really didn’t have a site that would fit the plant,” he said. “They needed rail service. We could have gotten rail service in our industrial park … but ultimately it wasn’t big enough.”
However, the recruitment of Ruiz Foods has proven to be a wise move in hindsight, Kaai said. Over the years, the food packager has grown to nearly 1,000 employees and has seen regular reinvestment in the site and facilities.
“We did a tax abatement a few years ago for another $30 million addition to the plant,” he said. “Thery continue to invest and upgrade their technology. They are just a great community asset and out of the projects I have been involved in, especially to that magnitude, they have been the easiest and the quickest one.”
Now, at the age of 68, Kaai is in the later years of his career in economic development. However, he said he doesn’t see retirement on the horizon yet and he still sees work he can do to help develop the city’s industrial base.
“My thing is, what would I do that would bring more satisfaction to me and my family than what I am doing now,” he said. “I don’t have anything in my mind, not in my thought process that says I could be doing this. It would be great. When I get up every morning, I know that I am going to get to do what I am doing.”
