Less than two years after ExxonMobil Corp. announced plans for a 385-acre, 10,000-employee campus in Spring, the energy giant is coming to The Woodlands, leasing more than 400,000 square feet of office space in two buildings in Hughes Landing. The move could bring 1,400 jobs to the community.

David Eglinton, media relations spokesman for ExxonMobil, said employees at the new Woodlands office will primarily be relocated from other Houston offices.

"We envisioned that certain groups [of employees] would be located at offices separate from the new [Springwoods Village] campus," Eglinton said. "Employee locations will be determined by business requirements. The employees that will work at Hughes Landing are primarily based at other company offices in the Houston area."

County Tax Assessor-Collector J.R. Moore said the jobs created would be a combination of relocated employees and new hires, with jobs including information technology, finances, attorneys and some administration. According to documents provided by Moore, the added jobs will receive a combined annual salary of about $179 million, or roughly $125,000 a year per position.

"It's huge," Moore said. "It's like another Anadarko all over again. And it's a compliment to what's happening with our neighbor in Harris County with their plant. We've already seen an explosion of home sales with [ExxonMobil] moving into Harris County. This is just going to add to that boom."

ExxonMobil will lease a 12-story, 317,000-square-foot office building and an 11-story parking garage on a 3.3-acre tract, as well as half of a 12 1/2-story, 332,000-square-foot office building in Hughes Landing. Construction on the development could be completed by November 2015.

As part of the agreement to bring ExxonMobil to The Woodlands, Montgomery County and The Woodlands Township each agreed to provide the company a 10-year property tax break.

Montgomery County Commissioners and the township board of directors each approved two abatements to ExxonMobil in December. ExxonMobil will not pay property taxes on the two buildings for 10 years.

After 10 years, the company will then pay the regular property taxes, Moore said. Once the abatements are completed in 2023, the two buildings are estimated to provide $573,000 in annual property tax revenue to the county, he said. The land the buildings will occupy generated about $6,000 in tax revenue in 2013.

The abatements require ExxonMobil to create a combined 1,430 jobs upon the completion of the two buildings, Moore said.

Although the township's tax abatement is worth about $341,000, township director Gordy Bunch said ExxonMobil's addition in The Woodlands, and the annual salaries the company's employees bring, would prove to be a financial benefit.

"The jobs created will benefit you more than the taxes you give," township director Mike Bass said.

Moore said Montgomery County has been working on the abatements for more than a year, but only learned in late November the agreements were for ExxonMobil.

He said the applications were submitted by ExxonMobil under the company names Champion A and Champion B. ExxonMobil recently announced it had narrowed its search to three states before selecting Texas.

"We're just proud that one of the top oil and gas companies like ExxonMobil chose Montgomery County," Moore said. "I think it's going to be a good marriage between the two of us."

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 the spring.

"We are very pleased to welcome ExxonMobil as a tenant in Hughes Landing, only a short distance from their new campus," said Paul Layne, executive vice president of master planned communities for The Howard Hughes Corporation. "Their offices in Hughes Landing are ideally situated, only steps away from all that Hughes Landing has to offer, providing their employees a one-of-a-kind setting where they can work in a vibrant lakeside community."

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

Moore could not confirm the exact location of the two ExxonMobil office buildings, but said the buildings would be next to CB&I's offices along Lake Woodlands.