The Baker Hughes Western Hemisphere Education Center is set to open within the next couple of months in Tomball. The facility is expected to bring tens of thousands of employees through the facility each year, net millions of dollars in revenue for the city in its first 10 years and lead to growth within the local school districts.
Kelly Violette, executive director for the Tomball Economic Development Corporation, said the $55.8 million Western Hemisphere Education Center campus at FM 2920 and FM 2978 will consist of a 72,445-square-foot, three-story education building, a 36,000-square-foot workshop, a 16,730-square-foot laboratory and auditorium, and a 156,000-square-foot yard with two non-producing oil training rigs.
The new facility is planned to be a facility for major corporate meetings and activities. It will be an integrated facility to enhance the educational opportunities for both Baker Hughes personnel and its customers, and it will develop skills and competencies needed to support its customers, Violette said.
She said the facility expects to hire up to 50 employees with average annual salaries of $40,000 for support personnel and $80,000 for trainers. The Baker Hughes education center is expected to bring in 5,500 trainees per month, or 66,000 per year, Violette said.
The total net benefit to the city of Tomball is estimated to be $7.8 million in the first 10 years.
"The 66,000 [people] per year coming through that facility is going to have a tremendous impact on the economy," Tomball City Manager George Shackelford said. "They are going to stay here. They are going to eat here and shop here."
With the anticipated arrival of thousands of trainees each month through Tomball, the city's hotels will be filling up, which will help build the city's coffers through hotel occupancy tax revenues, Shackelford said.
"That's basically 5,000 room nights a day," he said. "Let's just say that half of them drive or are within driving distance, that's still 2,500 room nights every day. That's a huge impact on the economy."
Violette said interest from hotel developers has increased significantly over the last few months from those looking to build hotels on the east side of the city near the new Baker Hughes campus.
There are two new hotels that will be built near the Baker Hughes campus in the coming years.
A Holiday Inn Express with 74 rooms will be built within Tomball city limits near Hwy. 249 and Medical Complex Drive, Shackelford said, while a four-story, 94-room Staybridge Suites is scheduled to break ground in August at FM 2920 and Mahaffey Road, outside of Tomball city limits, said Bruce Hillegeist, president of the Greater Tomball Area Chamber of Commerce.
Although the campus is within Tomball ISD boundaries, the training facility sits just across the street in Klein ISD and could lead to growth within the school district, said Judy Rimato, associate superintendent for communications & planning for Klein ISD.
"If you go south on Hufsmith-Kohrville, all the neighborhoods that are right there on the east side are all Klein," Rimato said. "A lot of the neighborhoods are all very close to the facility. We think it will impact us as Baker Hughes [grows]."
She said Klein ISD has already constructed one nearby elementary school—Bernshausen Elementary in 2013—to accommodate growth in the area. The district has plans to complete another elementary school at FM 2920 and Mahaffey Road in 2016 on the same side as the training facility.
The school district also plans to construct an intermediate school and a sixth high school on the same site as Bernshausen sometime in the future, Rimato said, although she does not know if those projects could be part of a possible bond referendum in 2015.
"The October PASA demographic study will give us some more direction on that," she said.
Barbara Thomason, president of the Houston Northwest Chamber of Commerce, said growth within the Baker Hughes campus will continue to have a significant effect on new businesses and development in the region.
"The first time I had seen the plans was at our forum, and I hadn't realized the new campus was as large as that," Thomason said. " So, I think it's certainly one of a handful of significant projects in our area that are going to bring people and business."