Project Butterfly (Emerson campus redevelopment)
Ferguson, St. Louis County, MO
Project Butterfly (Emerson campus redevelopment) is an announced data center project in Ferguson, MO. $1.8B redevelopment of the old Emerson campus into data center infrastructure, leased out to tenant companies. City sought authorization for up to $22B in industrial revenue bonds and 15-year personal-property tax abatements. A prior version failed on a 3-3 council vote (May 2026) after nearly two months of contentious debate; residents cite a lack of transparency on environmental/health impacts. Reconsidered version set for a final council vote (Sept 22, 2026).
Project status
- Announced
- Permitting
- Under constructionNot yet
- OperationalNot yet
Recorded changes
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Community sentiment
Should this project be built?
What’s next
Election Day is in 11 days.
Latest news
Nothing written about this data center yet.
Stories about it, and about St. Louis County, MO, land here.
Records and documentation
Missouri state legislation
- Infrastructure Development and Funding Agreement with CRG Acquisition LLCInfrastructure funding and development agreement between the City of Festus and CRG Acquisition LLC for a local data center project.Download
- Armory Innovation Data Center Project – Summary of CBA ProvisionsSummary document of negotiated CBA provisions and conditional-use terms for the Armory Innovation data center project in St. Louis.Download
- HB1005 - Sales/use tax exemption for data center operationsProvides sales and use tax exemption for goods and services related to data center operations.Download
- Ordinance No. 251031Kansas City, Missouri ordinance reclassifying data centers as an industrial use, enacted January 15, 2026.Download
- HB3390 - Creates new provisions related to the construction of data centersDescription comingDownload
Site details
- Operator
- Not announced
- County
- St. Louis County, MO
- Address
- Ferguson, MO
- Stage
- Announced
Capacity and size: not on file
Map
Photos
Google Street View
Google Street View
Google Street View
Google Street View
Who pays for data center power? Missouri faces a major testSt. Louis Post-Dispatch
An $8 billion Treasury break helped Meta’s tax rate hit 2%. Senators want data center tax answersFortune
The states with the fewest and most data centers, rankedBusiness Insider
Finns Are Seething After Google Illegally Toppled 250,000 Trees for a Data CenterMother Jones
Google offer to pay others to help data center powerArkansas Online
This bill would make data centers pay their own way for powerSalt Lake City Deseret News
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