What Project “Spade” Really Is

Breaking down the data center plan at I-70 & 19, using the paperwork

Most of us first heard “Project Spade” described as a data center.

What the actual paperwork shows is something much bigger: a 900-acre industrial energy and infrastructure complex, stitched together through separate permits, pipeline relocation deals, and a zoning decision that quietly redefined what a “data center” is.

None of this is rumor. This is straight from Montgomery County’s administrative review, state permits, and the agreements the developer has already signed.

Where is Project Spade and how big is it?

According to the Project Spade Administrative Review letter dated November 18, 2025, the site sits in the southeast quadrant of the I-70 and Highway 19 interchange. It covers:

• ≈ 780 acres in unincorporated Montgomery County (zoned Commercial), plus

• ≈ 130 acres inside the city limits of New Florence.

The core of the development is three huge primary buildings, each with about 1,080,920 square feet under roof—over a million square feet per building.

On the Spade Site Plan drawing, you can see those three rectangles lined up south of I-70, with stormwater basins, substations, security fencing, and access roads wrapped around them.

This is not a single warehouse. It’s, at minimum, three hyperscale-sized buildings plus everything needed to power and cool them.

What exactly did the County just approve?

The November 18 Administrative Review letter explains what Montgomery County Planning & Zoning looked at and how they chose to treat this project.

Key points:

• The project is officially called “Project Spade Data Center.”

• The County verified that the unincorporated parcels are zoned Commercial, and that lot area and setbacks all meet commercial standards.

• The site will be fully fenced, with:

  • an Ameren-owned substation,

  • an applicant-owned substation,

  • a guard station, visitor center, pump house, and water filtration building.

• They note multiple ingress and egress points and the plan to vacate Buechele Road, replacing it with a new Spade Road that ties into Tree Farm Road / South Service Road.

The key sentence for residents:

“All on-site support facilities, including substations, water systems, and utility components, fall within the definition of a data center as clarified by the Planning & Zoning Board on July 8, 2025; therefore, no conditional use permit is required… Data Centers are a permitted-by-right use within the Commercial Zoning District.”

In plain language:

• The Board broadened the definition of “data center” so that all the support pieces—substations, wells, water treatment, etc.—are treated as part of the data center, not as separate uses.

• Because “data center” is permitted by right in the Commercial district, they treated this whole complex as something that doesn’t need a conditional use permit or special public hearing.

This wasn’t an accident. There’s a paper trail.

The July 8 “definition change”

In a July 16, 2025 letter to project engineer George Stock, Zoning Administrator recaps what the Board did at the July 8 meeting: if an applicant provides proof that outside agencies (like DNR) are permitting things and signs an affidavit that those components are used exclusively by the data center, then “no additional permitting will be needed from Planning and Zoning” for those facilities.

She explains that she will do an administrative review of the concept plan and affidavit; once complete, the Board will only see it on a future agenda “for board awareness and record.”

That’s how a project of this scale got pushed into a streamlined, staff-level approval path.

Water: wells, wastewater, and “closed-loop cooling”

The Administrative Review letter says the data center will use a closed-loop cooling system. That two wells will be on-site for “primarily for employee water use.” And that the “domestic wastewater treatment plant” will sit inside New Florence city limits, under municipal jurisdiction.

Behind those facts sit several key permits and an affidavit.

The developer’s affidavit

In an Affidavit signed November 17, 2025, Michael Winston, authorized signatory for Spade Property Owner LLC, swears that:

• The project will be served by a dedicated electrical substation connected to the Ameren grid.

• Some buildings will also use backup generators.

• Two deep wells on the property will supply both domestic water and fire-suppression water, with pumping and storage built on-site.

• The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) is the permitting authority for the wells and associated water-supply systems.

  

This affidavit is the piece that lets the County treat all of those systems as part of the “data center” instead of separate facilities.

Domestic community well approval

A separate MDNR letter titled “Approval on Plans and Specifications for a New Community Well – Spade Subdivision” gives you a sense of the scale.

Highlights from that approval:

• The well is located in Section 36, Township 48 North, Range 5 West in Montgomery County, serving the “Spade Subdivision.”

• The new well will be drilled to about 1,400 feet deep with a 12-inch diameter steel casing.

• A submersible pump with a capacity of 700 gallons per minute at 680 feet total dynamic head will be installed.

700 gallons per minute is over 1 million gallons per day of potential pumping capacity.

MDNR’s letter notes that this approval is only valid if specific conditions are met, including completing a pump test, submitting pressure grout records, and getting final construction approval after inspection.

Land disturbance & stormwater – “Project Lumberjack”

Another MDNR document is the Missouri State Operating Permit for Project Lumberjack, described as “Part of Project Spade”, for land disturbance and stormwater discharge at 580 Tree Farm Road, New Florence, MO 63363.

Key pieces:

• Permit number MORA29107, issued to Spade Property Owner LLC on 11-05-2025, valid until 02-07-2027.

• It covers 23.04 acres of construction/land disturbance activity.

• The permit requires a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) and compliance with Clean Water Law rules.

This is the tree-clearing, grading, and dirt work phase that prepares the site.

Pipelines, gas, and power: moving everything around the mega-site

To build something this big, the developer has to literally move existing pipelines out of the way and build new energy infrastructure around it. The docs show that they are already doing that, and paying for it.

Relocating an ammonia pipeline – NuStar/Sunoco agreement

A Reimbursement Agreement between NuStar Pipeline Operating Partnership L.P. and Spade Property Owner LLC explains that:

• NuStar currently has an 8-inch ammonia pipeline and related facilities under existing right-of-way easements dating back to 1968.

• The Spade developer’s project will encroach on those facilities.

• The developer (Spade Property Owner LLC) has asked NuStar to relocate its existing facilities and is agreeing to reimburse NuStar for all costs involved.

The agreement is structured in two phases:

1. Phase I – NuStar performs preliminary survey and engineering/design work to figure out what relocation would involve; the developer pays 100% of NuStar’s costs for this work, up to an agreed cap.

2. Phase II – If the developer chooses to proceed, NuStar actually relocates the pipeline, and the developer prepays and reimburses 100% of all construction, materials, labor, gas loss, and damage payments up to the actual cost.

This is how industrial projects push older infrastructure aside: through private reimbursement agreements.

Relocating a high-pressure gas line – City of Hermann agreement

The City of Hermann, Missouri documents show a similar story on the natural gas side.

The Board of Aldermen passed an ordinance in June 2025 to:

• Approve a Utility Safety & Design, Inc. (USDI) proposal to determine feasibility for relocating a natural gas pipeline that currently runs from the city north to the project area.

• Approve a reimbursement agreement with the developer (a Delaware LLC linked to the same group) so that the developer pays for the feasibility study and engineering work.

  

USDI’s letter lays out the scope:

• Analyze a new pipeline relocation route south of the current alignment, based on the developer’s site plan.

• Perform environmental and permitting screening.

• Start discussions with key stakeholders and landowners.

• Prepare a preliminary project cost estimate and schedule, including design, permitting, construction, and inspection.

Again: this shows the project reaching beyond one property, triggering regional gas pipeline changes that the developer is bankrolling.

Ameren & electric build-out

The Administrative Review letter notes that the applicant has provided Ameren correspondence confirming:

• Relocation of an existing high-voltage transmission line, and

• The electric infrastructure Ameren will construct to serve the project, with all project-related costs paid by the developer.

The Site Plan drawing also shows:

• An Ameren substation,

• An applicant-owned substation, and

• A 150-foot-wide transmission easement running along the property.

So when you look at the full picture, Project Spade isn’t just “plugging into the grid.” It is re-wiring the grid, ammonia pipeline, and gas infrastructure around itself.

The Admin Review checklist: what’s done and what’s still blank

The Montgomery County Planning & Zoning “Data Center Administrative Review – Commercial Zoned District” checklist is a two-page form that shows what boxes have been checked and which items are still missing.

Some highlights:

• “Legal entity, ownership structure, and property owner identified” – YES

• Zoning verified – Commercial / City of New Florence; lot area ≈ 596.6 acres + 347.3 acres listed.

• Site plan, grading, and stormwater management plan – included.

• MDNR well permit / water service documentation – yes

• Wastewater disposal method approved – yes

• Electric provider agreement – yes, notes “Ameren” and MISO agreement and relocation outlines.

• MDNR stormwater/air/wastewater permits

But many other lines are blank, including:

• Dust control and construction access routes,

• Hazardous materials and fuel containment plan,

• Long-term maintenance & contact person,

• Fire suppression plan,

• Annual stormwater and equipment maintenance schedule,

• Power demand (MW) and source capacity confirmed,

• Water usage estimate (gallons/day),

• Cooling system type and discharge plan,

• Construction traffic and haul route plan,

• OSHA Material Safety Data Sheets for fuels and coolants,

• Fire district coverage and hydrant locations.

At the bottom, Zoning Administrator signs and dates the review as 11/17/2025, with submission to P&Z Board on 11/18 and to County Commission on 11/20.

So you can literally see some key safety and impact details are still undefined, yet the land-use approval is effectively granted.

The “data center” label as the umbrella

Finally, the email correspondence between Donna Viehmann, the zoning administrator, and George Stock spells out how all of this got tucked under one label.

Donna explains that the Board clarified the definition of a Data Center to mean that if the applicant provides proof of external approvals/protocols, and signs an affidavit that the components are used exclusively by the data center, then no additional permitting will be needed from P&Z for those components

She also notes that when DNR is involved, she typically just asks for that correspondence, and if it’s favorable, she issues the building permit.

So every well, every substation, the wastewater plant, the pipes, the stormwater basins, everything on-site is being legally treated as “a data center” instead of separate, heavily scrutinized industrial uses.

That might be good for speed and corporate comfort. It’s not great for democratic oversight.

In plain language: what this all adds up to

When you put the documents together, here’s what Project Spade actually is:

• A ~900-acre complex at I-70 & 19 with three 1-million-sq-ft buildings, fenced and secured.

• Fed by a new deep community well capable of over a million gallons per day, plus on-site storage and pumping for domestic and fire-suppression use.

• Supported by a domestic wastewater treatment plant inside New Florence city limits under municipal oversight.

• Prepared through Project Lumberjack, an MDNR-permitted land disturbance and stormwater project for at least 23 acres of clearing and grading.

• Re-routing an 8-inch ammonia pipeline and 10,000 feet of high-pressure gas pipeline, both at the developer’s expense.

• Re-wiring Ameren’s high-voltage lines and building new substations and a 150-foot transmission easement.

• Approved as a permitted-by-right “data center” because the County changed the definition and accepts an affidavit + outside permits instead of its own conditional use review.

This is the AI factory next door: not just rows of servers, but the water system, power system, pipelines, and land disturbance rearranged around a single, extremely energy-intensive use under a zoning label that collapses all of it into one word: data center.

For neighbors, the immediate questions become:

• How much water will this actually use, and from what aquifer?

• How will stormwater and wastewater be monitored over time?

• What’s the noise, light, and traffic impact of three million-square-foot buildings running 24/7 with substations and generators?

• And most importantly: why was this allowed to bypass a full public conditional-use process?

Those are questions we can still ask. But to ask them well, we first have to see the project for what it actually is.

And now, at least on paper, we do.

© 2025 Änna Farrar. This work is shared for reading and discussion, not for reuse. Please treat it like you would any other personal property: Don’t use or reproduce it without my consent.