The secret's out.

Like blooms in spring, businesses continue to appear along the Interstate 12 corridor awaiting the Midas touch of the public to flutter along and pollinate the expanding economy.

The latest to announce its occupancy in St. Tammany is LLOG Exploration Co., an exploratory oil company seeking black gold throughout the Gulf of Mexico that will employ 100 people, transforming St. Tammany Parish into the unofficial oil-hub in Louisiana.

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"Along with the recent relocation of Chevron to the Northshore, St. Tammany can now call home to the two most active drilling exploration companies in the Gulf of Mexico," Property One CEO Quentin Dastugue said.

The 24-acre, $48-million office park currently under construction is located in Covington on Oschner Boulevard.

The site will be the future home of a four-story, 105,000-square-foot office building with nearly 50,000 square feet available for lease, an adjoining executive conference center and a 52,000-square-foot health club.

The upscale health club will include a 4,700-square-foot spa, 12 tennis courts, two swimming pools and fitness rooms.

The buildings are scheduled for completion this time next year.

The site's official groundbreaking was held last week with featured guest St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis opening the ceremony.

"This is a tremendous impact for the parish," Davis said. "It does so much more than to have a new company move here. It talks about the quality of life we have here for LLOG to have their employees live in St. Tammany."

LLOG's current office in Metairie has become cramped with continued expansion. President and CEO Scott Gutterman said they needed to relocate to a larger space, but the decision to build in St. Tammany was an easy one.

"We have a fairly large office in Houston, an office here and our corporate office is in Metairie," he said. "We wanted to consolidate our operations, and it was going to either be in Houston or Covington. Honestly, the smart money is Houston, but we all live here."

Even after Katrina almost convinced the company to relocate to Houston, Gutterman said they wanted to try their luck in St. Tammany.

Davis said he expects to see many more high-caliber companies relocating to his parish in the coming years as they discover the potential lying in the I-12 corridor.