Community Impact Newspaper previously reported that the corporation had failed to meet a requirement to have 470 employees at one building and 960 at another building in Hughes Landing as of the January reporting period. The company had resolved a default on the agreement by moving employees where needed to fulfill the terms.
Kevin Gerrity, global strategy manager at ExxonMobil, spoke at a special Oct. 11 meeting of The Woodlands board of directors, which included a closed executive session discussion.
“We entered the tax abatement agreement a while ago. ... With our recent economic financial results for the corporation, we are going through significant shifts with a focus on reducing costs,” he said.
Gerrity said canceling the tax abatements would give the company more flexibility to move employees between its various facilities.
“Our intent is to pay the abated tax for the past and ... pay our regular tax rates ... going forward,” he said.
ExxonMobil will pay back taxes of $796,439 for Building A and $305,462 for Building B, according to information at the meeting.
Other taxing entities, including Montgomery County, had also enacted tax abatement agreements with ExxonMobil, according to township officials.
“The situation you’re in is not unusual; you’re seeing Class A office rationalization in just about every single market,” board Vice Chair Bruce Rieser said. “We appreciate the fact that you’ve come forward and asked to voluntarily be released from the tax abatement."
Board Chair Gordy Bunch said additional information on tax abatements at the site will be presented at the next board meeting, which is scheduled for Oct. 21.
“We did discover a portion of Building B was improperly abated, and we were able to discover seven years of unpaid taxes from the HL Champion portion of the building, and we have since recovered a portion of that,” Bunch said.
