Energizing ExxonMobil’s abatements in The Woodlands

THE WOODLANDS – Montgomery County Commissioners have approved two ten-year, 100 percent tax abatements to ExxonMobil for one-and-a-half office buildings and an 11-story parking garage in the Hughes Landing Development.

ExxonMobil will lease a 12-story, 317,000-sf office building and an 11-story parking garage situated on 3.3 acres, as well as half of a 332,000-sf office building.

The 2013 levy on the two tracts totals about $6,000 in property tax revenue to the county, while the 2016 levy should provide about $161,500 despite the abatements. Once the ten-year abatements are completed in 2023, the two buildings are estimated to provide $573,000 in annual property tax revenue.

The abatements require ExxonMobil to create a combined 1,430 jobs upon the completion of the two buildings, scheduled for November 2015. The jobs created would be a combination of relocated employees and new hires, with positions ranging from information technology, financial, attorneys and some administration.

The added jobs will receive a combined annual salary of about $179 million, or roughly $125,000 a year per position. “We’ve already seen an explosion of home sales with [ExxonMobil] moving into Harris County. This is just going to add to that boom,” said J.R. Moore, county tax assessor-collector.

ExxonMobil’s new headquarters, located on 386 acres within the Springwoods Village development in Spring, is still under construction. Expected to be complete in 2015, the campus could see ExxonMobil relocate as many as 10,000 employees.

The 66-acre Hughes Landing development already houses an eight-story office building with Layne Christensen’s headquarters, while another eight-story office building is under construction and scheduled for completion in spring 2014.

Hughes Landing will feature 1.5 million to 2 million sf of office space, 800 to 1,000 apartment units, 175,000 to 200,000 sf of retail space, a hotel and other amenities upon its completion.