Representatives from NorthPoint Development, LLC attended the New Florence Board of Aldermen meeting on Feb. 9 to share plans of one of two proposed data centers in Montgomery County.

Vice President of Development Jennifer George and Development Manager Nick Crawford spoke with the board for 25 minutes about Project Green, to be located east of New Florence. NorthPoint is a real estate development firm that is partnering with Amazon Web Services to develop the first phase of the project.

“We have not been a party to any of the discussion or negotiations for incentives on the project,” George said. “That’s all between the county directly and between Amazon. We kind of waited to see how all of that had progressed first. They approved the incentives of the county commission back in December and in early January approved some of the next steps for the bonds for Chapter 100. That’s kind of all settled now, which gives us a little bit more of a picture of where the dollars of all of the new revenues are going to be going for the project and what the terms looked like that the county had negotiated.”

Three months ago, the Montgomery County Commission signed off on land-use approvals near the I-70 and Highway 19 interchange. They are Project Green and Project Spade, which covers almost 800 acres south of Interstate 70.
George said she went to the New Florence Board of Aldermen meeting so she could have an opportunity to share the project’s plans with the New Florence and High Hill city officials. She hopes to attend the next High Hill Board of Aldermen meeting on March 9.

“The County Commission has asked us to make improvements within those jurisdictions,” George said. “So, I’m connecting with each (community) to understand the process.”
At the New Florence meeting, George handed out a three-page plan to the board members. The first page is the master plan, which includes a map of the 17-building campus that is planned to be located on Hudson and Ellis roads.

George said NorthPoint will deliver a proposed switching station owned by Ameren and a private substation on the northwest section of the site on Hudson Road. Water and wastewater treatment facilities will be located on the east end of the site on Ellis Road.
There are two phases in the project. Four data center buildings will be constructed in the first phase and the others will be built in the second phase.

“The phase 1 primary entrance upon the location of the project will be off of Hudson,” George said. “The phase 2 primary access point upon location is along Ellis.”
Project Green is about 900 acres. George said 80 of those acres will be under roof.

“There’s a lot of open space on the project,” she said.

Work on the data center will begin in the spring. As part of the project, NorthPoint plans to improve several county roads as well as construct a railroad crossing over the Norfolk Southern Railway line at Ellis Road that is anticipated to be completed in two years.

According to the NorthPoint officials, the project will have a landscape exhibit that will include 155 acres of native flowering prairie grasses, 370 new trees and 480 new shrubs.