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The City of Tomball recently added land to its extraterritorial jurisdiction, which is currently being purchased by Baker Hughes, on the northeast corner of FM 2978 and FM 2920.

The land, once developed, will include a new 72,445 square-foot classroom building, a 36,000 square-foot workshop, a 16,730 square-foot lab and two training oil rigs.

The $50-plus million project will be Baker Hughes Western Hemisphere Education Center once complete. The company has a similar site in the eastern hemisphere located in Dubai, India.

The Tomball Economic Development Corporation (TEDC) is also in the middle of the project, as it will contribute a little more than $900,000 towards the cost of the projects infrastructure.

TEDC executive director Kelly Violette said she is confident that the project will create new jobs, new growth and lots of additional sales and property tax revenue.

The project is designed to help with training and education of Baker Hughes personnel and customers.

Officials said that the center will generate around 66,000 trainees per year, who will use more than 50,000 hotel room nights each year. The city estimates that the new facility will create 50 new jobs, as well as nearly 30 indirect jobs.

Officials are estimating more than an $8 million dollar benefit to the city over a 10-year period, with many of those dollars going into the hotel/motel fund, which is used to put on various events in the city and to promote Tomball as a tourist and business destination.

Construction on the site is expected to begin later this year or early 2013. Baker Hughes is now negotiating to buy the land and expects construction to be completed with a year of the start of construction.

Once the purchase of the land is completed, Baker Hughes will submit an application for annexation. Once that is complete the permitting process will begin, according to city officials.