Texas A&M University has unveiled plans to open a satellite campus in McAllen.

Officials with A&M, the city of McAllen and Hidalgo County signed a letter of intent to construct a facility in McAllen, which is in the southern tip of Texas, about 370 miles south of A&M's home campus in College Station.

The agreement calls for the creation of a teaching facility on about 100 acres of land within the Tres Lagos development on the north side of McAllen.

The City of McAllen, in conjunction with Hidalgo County, is offering the 100 acres, plus $10 million toward a teaching facility and $8 million to install utilities and infrastructure.

“We realize that this new presence gives the Rio Grande Valley and McAllen a phenomenal new higher education institution, which South Texas deserves," says McAllen Mayor James Darling.

Texas A&M will provide academic programs such as engineering, engineering technology, biomedical sciences, and agriculture and life sciences as well as helping to pay for construction of the facility.

The university hopes to open the facility by 2017 with 100 students, and expand to 750 students over five years.