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Amidst an already ongoing remodeling project at the Four Corners Shopping Center in Tomball, owners have approached the city and the Tomball Economic Development Corporation (TEDC) for help.

With over 114,000 square feet of retail space and sitting near a high traffic area, much of the center has sat vacant and deteriorating since it’s previous anchor store, Kroger, moved across the street.

Local retail brokers Jason Baker and Kenneth Katz created a firm, BK 2920 Ltd., with the purpose of purchasing and redeveloping much of the site. They then began negotiating with city officials for public financing options.

‘They have some major challenges in redeveloping the area,” TEDC executive director Kelly Violette said.

Negotiations have ended with TEDC, Violette said and its board members have approved an agreement. The agreement will provide up to 75 percent of new tax revenues generated within the site for the next 13 years, to help BK 2920 Ltd. offset some of the proposed costs.

“The group wants to attract new retail to the site, but many of the bigger and more prime sites are taken,” Violette explained. “They will incur a cost to provide relocation incentives to those tenants, as well as costs in attracting new tenants.”

“They are trying to free up the prime areas,” she added.

The agreement, called a 380 agreement, will provide the dollars only if there is an increase in sales tax revenue and even then it will be limited. Violette said the agreement calls for caps of $300,000 in reimbursements per year and $1.5 million over the life of the agreement. The agreement also calls for the developer to make a minimum investment of $3.4 million on the site.

‘The beauty of this type of agreement is that the city and the TEDC don’t front any money,” she said. “It is based on performance.”

Violette said the agreement and redevelopment is an important step in the continued growth of Tomball.

“(The shopping center) is at a key intersection in the city --- alonst a gateway --- and it’s been in such disrepair for so long,” she said. “If the term ends and he hasn’t yet been able to recoup the maximum reimbursement, it doesn’t matter, the agreement still ends.”

The plan presented by the developer calls for more than $9 million in building and tenant improvements, site work and signage.

The agreement will now go to the Tomball City Council for final approval.

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.

The Tomball City Council and the Tomball Economic Development Corporation (TEDC) recently began discussions on financing for a new business park in Tomball.

The park, which will be located at the corner of Hufsmith-Kohrville and Holderrieth roads, was moved into the design stage late last year.

"When I came on board the TEDC in March of 2011, we started doing analysis on the economic development side to see where we were and what we found was that costs associated with developing in many areas were challenging because of the lack of infrastructure," TEDC executive director Kelly Violette said.

Violette said that Tomball has lost a lot of potential business because of a lack of build-ready site locations.

"We are losing a lot of potential clients because we have a minimal amount of sites that are ready to develop," she said.

The TEDC recently approved $1.7 million in funding for the sites planning and design stages and recently met with council members to discuss financing options for the construction of the park. Violette said that they estimate the total cost for the site to be around $14 million, including the money already spent for design.

"We have had a number of discussions to talk about what is available as far as financing goes," she said. "We want to make sure that the amount we borrow and the cost to borrow are affordable."

Violette said that preliminary discussions are leaning toward the city issuing bonds, that TEDC will be responsible for paying back. The bonds will be of the type that will not require property taxes to go up.

"The next step is that the city's financial advisor and bond counsel will come and give council and TEDC a checklist of what's needed to make sure the responsibility of paying is on the TEDC," she said, adding that the process will take about four months.

The planned 102-acre park has already received interest from numerous companies, according to Violette. Current designs outline potential lots and Violette said that companies can purchase any size lot they desire, as long as it is a minimum of 5,000 square feet.

Current interest in the park has come mainly from oil and gas companies.

"The indications are that it will sell out quickly," she said. "What is exicitng is that we can be somewhat selective and find companies that fit with Tomball. We are looking for companies with good track records."

The Tomball City Council and the Tomball Economic Development Corporation (TEDC) took the first steps toward an agreement to fund a new business and industrial park on Holderrieth and Hufsmith-Kohrville roads, as they agreed to issue Certificate of Obligation bonds, which will be TEDC's responsibility to pay back.

"One of the things that city administration and (TEDC executive director) Kelly Violette asked me, was to find a way to fiancé this project to support the business park in a way that was as efficient and cost effective as possible," said the city's bond counsel Jonathan Frels. "One of the mechanisms we have seen work very well in other cities is the process whereby the city issue certificates of obligation, but the actual payments come from the EDC."

Frels went on to say that Tomball and the TEDC have done business this way in the past, with the TEDC paying off bonds from 1999 and 2002.

"It works in situations like this where the type of infrastructure (water, sewer, streets, etc.) that you are planning to put in is city owned," he added.

The proposal that both the TEDC and the city council agreed to, is one in which the city will issue around $8.5 million in bonds and the TEDC will make the payments. The money will go towards developing the property into a business, technology and industrial park, which officials hope will attract numerous new businesses and jobs to the area.

The agreement also calls for the TEDC to hold a specific fund balance of $2 million, in order to assure the city and creditors of their ability to pay back the money.

"It matches what a rating agency would require of the city and we can go to them and tell them 'look, here is what we have'," Frels said.

The council then approved a measure to publicize the intention to issue the bonds. The entire process is expected to be completed sometime in April.