Festus Leads the Way In Growth & Innovation

Our initial conceptual plan contemplated a 1-gigawatt campus, with 12 two-story buildings. We are choosing not to build that. Instead, our revised conceptual plan is approximately 600 megawatts, with 4 single-story buildings and larger setbacks from residential neighborhoods. We made these changes after hearing the community's concerns.

No groundbreaking or opening date has been set. The project is still working through the site planning process, and construction cannot begin until that process is complete.

We understand this is important for the community. We have interest from a lot of users. We will share that information at the appropriate time. What we can confirm is that CRG is the developer, Clayco is the general contractor, and both are committed to Festus regardless of the tenant’s name.

This is an enterprise-scale data center — secured buildings housing servers and networking equipment that support cloud computing. Data centers are the invisible backbone of our digital lives. Every time we stream a show, back up photos, shop online, or use AI tools, the work is done in a data center. These specialized facilities power the apps and services we rely on 24/7.

The nearest building sits about 1,200 feet from the adjacent property, more than three football fields away. The buildings are only one story tall and sit behind a preserved ridgeline and tree buffer. In addition to the trees we will be preserving, there will be significant landscaping, so most neighbors will not see the buildings.

Specific parking counts are determined during final design and the permitting process. As design elements are finalized, they will be made available to the public and added to FestusForward.com. 

We are preserving approximately 188 acres, more than half of the land. That protects trees, streams, and the ridge by Ashford Place.

The environmental study located gravesites in the preserved land. They will not be disturbed.

As we finalize the site plans, we will be coordinating with the applicable fire districts to ensure adequate fire protection and emergency service are in place for the entire property. We want to get this right and will work with the districts as the plans advance.

As announced at our June 29 presentation, if at or after 20 years from the start of operations, the site is abandoned — meaning operations have ceased, the property is not being repositioned for productive use, and it has fallen into disrepair or non-compliance — the City may draw on a $10 million bond or letter of credit posted by the developer to help reposition the asset.

The 40% reduction refers to power capacity — roughly 1 gigawatt down to about 600 megawatts — not to dollars. The $6 billion has always been described as a minimum initial investment in construction costs and the personal property (equipment) inside the buildings. Moving to fewer, single-story buildings with greater setbacks and more preserved land changed the scale of the campus, but we still expect this to be at least a $6 billion investment.

As job opportunities become available, we will keep the community informed through FestusForward.com and our public communications channels.

There are no non-disclosure agreements in place between the City of Festus and CRG, in either direction. Additionally, we can confirm that there are no NDAs with any public body or agency involved with this development including Jefferson County.

We plan to hold a series of regular online events where residents can hear directly from the project team, learn more about the current conceptual plan, and have their questions answered. We will update FestusForward.com with schedule and registration information as they become available.

Please note that the webinars are in addition to the in-person meeting we’ll be holding as part of the permitting process.