Owners and operators, since 1953.

BAK Development is a Tulsa family office. For four generations we have bought, built, and run aerospace and manufacturing companies, and carried what we learned into real estate development and early-stage investing.

1953Southwest United founded 2012Sale to Precision Castparts 2013Mingo Aerospace 2020Mingo joins Sunvair Group 2025Cherry Creek Machine 2026Peoria-Mohawk campus
Who we are

Capital with grease under its fingernails.

The Southwest United Industries building in Tulsa
SOUTHWEST UNITED INDUSTRIES · 422 S. ST. LOUIS AVE., TULSA

BAK Development is the Emery family office, named for the initials of the three children it was formed to serve. The record began in 1953, when Willard A. Emery founded Southwest United Industries in Tulsa and built it with his sons into a metal finishing company serving the aerospace industry. The third generation, Bill and Jim Emery, kept building it: meeting ever-rising environmental and quality standards, and expanding across North America by acquisition and greenfield construction, before selling to Precision Castparts, a Berkshire Hathaway company, in 2012, its sixtieth year of family ownership. Bill remains an active manager today, leading OK Autonomous. The fourth generation now runs the family's businesses the same way: buying, growing, and operating manufacturers; developing real estate we intend to keep; backing founders we can be useful to.

We are not a fund. We have no LPs, no deployment clock, and no committee. When we buy a business, we run it. When we develop a property, we own it. When we back a founder, we stay.

FOUR GENERATIONS · TULSA, OKLAHOMA · FAMILY-HELD
NINE COMPANIES · SINCE 1953
Southwest United Industries Mingo Aerospace Mingo Manufacturing Cherry Creek Machine OK Autonomous ArborXR Activ Energy Park 107 Mach Energy Services
What we do

Three practices, one operating discipline.

Operating Companies

We buy manufacturers and run them.

Aerospace MRO and precision manufacturing, owned directly and operated by the family: from the shop floor up, not the board deck down.

Real Estate

We develop what we intend to keep.

Ground-up development and long-term ownership in the Tulsa region: industrial, multifamily, and land.

Ventures

We back founders we can be useful to.

Seed-stage positions where decades of manufacturing, aerospace, and energy operating experience earn us a seat beyond the check.

Architectural rendering of the Cherry Creek Machine building at Peoria-Mohawk Business Park
PEORIA-MOHAWK CAMPUS · RENDER BY GH2 ARCHITECTS
Now building

Peoria-Mohawk Business Park.

A two-building advanced-manufacturing campus in north Tulsa, with Cherry Creek Machine anchoring the owner-operated building, and a larger ambition behind it: pairing seven decades of aerospace and defense manufacturing with Tulsa's push into drone and autonomous flight. Through Cherry Creek, OK Autonomous, and this campus, we are building where the next generation of aircraft will be made.

IN DEVELOPMENT · DELIVERY 2027
The present tense

The discipline didn't sell with the companies. It stayed with the family.

A machinist at the control of a Haas VF-4 at Cherry Creek Machine
PLATE I · ON THE FLOOR AT CHERRY CREEK MACHINE · TULSA
The record

Four generations. Seventy-three years. One way of working.

Our history is the best explanation of who we are and who we are becoming: employers first, builders of companies, and believers in the American manufacturing ecosystem growing here in Tulsa. Six decades of ownership at Southwest United; seven years building Mingo; four more on its successor's board. The full account, including the ones we sold back, lives on the History page.

SEVEN DECADES ON THE PROGRAMS
B-47 · B-52 · SHUTTLE · B-1B · F/A-18 · 737 · 747 · 757 · 767 · 787 · A320 · A330 · A350 · A380 · C-17 · C-130 · KC-135 · GULFSTREAM
1953
Southwest United Industries founded in Tulsa by Willard A. Emery: aerospace metal finishing and component repair. NASA Shuttle program work in the 1980s; pioneered HVOF chrome-plating replacement with Boeing and Lufthansa in the 1990s; grew to operations in Tulsa, Ontario, and Querétaro.
2012
SWU sold to Precision Castparts, a Berkshire Hathaway company, in its sixtieth year of family ownership.
2013–2020
Mingo Aerospace acquired and built, from a small Tulsa repair station into a leading component MRO, then sold to Blue Sea Capital, where it became part of Sunvair Aerospace Group.
2020–2024
Board seat at Sunvair Aerospace Group through the MRO roll-up and its sale to Greenbriar Equity Group: eleven years, start to finish, in one company’s story.
2025–
Back on the shop floor. Cherry Creek Machine acquired; OK Autonomous co-founded; the Peoria-Mohawk campus underway.
THE FULL RECORD →
Selected holdings

Current portfolio.

ALL HOLDINGS →
Cherry Creek Machine OPERATING · 2025– Precision CNC machining, Tulsa. AS9100 in progress; anchoring the Peoria-Mohawk campus. CCMACHINE.COM
OK Autonomous OPERATING · 2025– Connecting autonomous-systems OEMs with Oklahoma's manufacturing base. Led by Bill Emery. OK-AS.COM
Park 107 REAL ESTATE · 2022–2024 262-unit Class A community in Owasso, developed with Rose Rock. 50% general partner. PARK107.COM
ArborXR VENTURES · SEED 2021 Enterprise XR device management for Fortune 500 training programs. Significant holder. ARBORXR.COM
Activ Energy VENTURES · SEED 2025 Exclusive Americas partner for Nissan Chemical's nanoActiv® recovery technology. Tulsa. ACTIVENERGY.COM
Downtown Tulsa participations REAL ESTATE · LP Limited-partner positions in Rose Rock's historic conversions, including the Palace and Adams. W/ ROSE ROCK
Acquisitions

If you own a shop and are thinking about what's next.

We acquire aerospace MRO businesses and precision-manufacturing companies that complement Cherry Creek Machine. We don't publish size criteria because fit matters more than size: FAA-certificated repair capability, a real customer base, and people worth keeping.

We buy to run, not to flip. Our family held Southwest United into its sixtieth year. We ran Mingo Aerospace for seven and stayed on its successor's board for four more. We've sat on your side of the table. We know what a seller worries about, we move with our own capital, and we don't need a banker to have a conversation.

HOW WE WORK →