Luring Entrepreneurs with Free Land in Oklahoma

Earlier this year, David Moritz was ready to expand Society Awards, his New York City trophy design business, so he hired a real estate broker to help him find cheap warehouse space. After looking outside that city and outside Chicago, he wasn’t sold on what he saw. Then Moritz got a call from his parents: His hometown of Grove, Okla., had recently doubled the size of its industrial park and was luring businesses with promises of free land for any that stayed for five years. “Who can refuse that offer?” says Moritz, who expects his new warehouse to be ready by August.

Grove’s development push is rooted in centuries of government largesse. In 1889, the first federal land grants in what is now the state of Oklahoma prompted tens of thousands of people to descend in a single day, according to a Harper’s Weekly account at that time. Back then, settlers could claim title to up to 160 acres of land, provided they lived on it and improved it for five years.