Exxon Mobil will relocate 2,000 employees from Fairfax, Va. and Akron, Ohio, to its new 385-acre corporate campus which is under construction on the far north side of the Houston area, the energy firm formally announced in a news release. By 2015, about 10,000 Exxon Mobil employees will work at the new corporate campus, about 8,000 of them relocated from other parts of Houston.

The Exxon Mobil campus delivers a massive injection of momentum to the north side housing market, including The Woodlands.

Exxon Mobil currently occupies space in about 30 office buildings around Houston, including a downtown tower at 800 Bell and about 2 million square feet in the Greenspoint area near Bush Intercontinetal Airport. When it moves its employees to the new corporate campus, the Houston office market will be impacted. But Houston's office occupancy is strong and most of the Exxon Mobil vacated space should be digestible in the current hot office market.

The announcement by Exxon Mobil confirms what CultureMap first reported in 2009 – the remnant of the old Mobil Corp. is moving from Fairfax, Va. to Houston. Virginia employees will move to the campus in phases as the new buildings are constructed, beginning in early 2014. Full occupancy of the campus is expected by 2015.

The campus is located on a wooded site of company-owned land near the intersection of I-45 and the Hardy Toll Road, just south of The Woodlands. Several new housing communities are being constructed nearby, including the 1,800-acre Springwoods Village community, which is adjacent to the Exxon Mobil site.

Exxon Mobil spokesmen have continually denied that the headquarters of the company will be relocated from Irving, a suburb of Dallas, which has a miniscule energy industry presence compared to Houston, regarded as the Energy Capital of the World.

Exxon Mobil operates with military-style secrecy and its spokesmen are not known for transparency, but the headquarters of the energy giant appears to be permanently planted in Irving.

In 1989, Exxon announced it was moving its headquarters from New York to Irving, despite the fact Houston, with its vast talent pool of the best in the energy industry, would have been an excellent location. Houston business leaders were furious.

The new Exxon Mobil campus is located just inside the border of Harris County.

With the announcement by Exxon Mobil this week, the energy company gives more clarity to the company’s presence here. Exxon Mobil said the units being moved to Houston include the Fairfax offices of Exxon Mobil’s Refining and Supply Co.; ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Co.; Exxon Mobil Fuels, Lubricants & Specialties Marketing Co.; the Akron-based employees of Exxon Mobil Chemical Co.; and people from Exxon Mobil Research and Engineering Co. and Exxon Mobil Chemical Co. now located at the Baytown refinery complex.