urbanSTL

Steve Smith on Armory data center

Homeless shelter in the Armory? St. Louis gets creative in hunt for winter housing

Honestly in the intermediate term it's not a bad spot for one. Easy metro access and until the bridge is built across the highway it's still pretty isolated from the surrounding city.

Does anyone know any catholic institutions with a significant amount of event and office space… maybe near midtown?

God is watching

addxb2 wrote: ↑

Nov 12, 2025

Does anyone know any catholic institutions with a significant amount of event and office space… maybe near midtown?

God is watching

Does the Archdiocese not run the largest homeless shelter in the region already? And they also run the largest food pantry.

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Permanent homeless shelter would be morally better than a data center.

Stl PR - Questions on Armory data center’s scope, environmental impact remain unanswered months later


https://www.stlpr.org/economy-business/ ... unanswered

Developer moving his sights to the Famous Barr warehouse across the street to the west for the data center. Will turn Armory into "luxury office space" for the data center tenant.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/bus ... acd53.html

A lot of details in there. Promises to "address" unpaid taxes and utility bills at closing. Terminating the Armory TIF and not seeking those incentives again. Will pursue a state tax credit for data centers. Anticipating "$28 million in taxes for St. Louis and $36 million for St. Louis Public Schools in its first year of operation — or about $148 million for the city and $233 million for SLPS over 10 years."

I have the 18 slide deck presented
To the city. This will get done. Everyone is on board

This is better than what has been floated. I’m behind the paywall so maybe I’m missing some context but Creative Tech Office sounds like buzzword slop that only AI is stupid enough to spit out. No one builds office in this town unless they have a tenant lined up already. Color me skeptical about the Armory portion.

Renderings

This is gross.... so now disenfranchise the people who rely on this Goodwill for basic goods in the city? This is the busiest Goodwill in the region. Nah.. this is no win. 

SRQ2STL wrote: ↑

8:04 PM - Jan 16

This is gross.... so now disenfranchise the people who rely on this Goodwill for basic goods in the city? This is the busiest Goodwill in the region. Nah.. this is no win. 

They are willingly selling, for a lot of money, which will be used to get another location and lot left over

Words are wind.
If it sounds too good to be true, that's because it's a lie. 
Nonetheless, betting the farm on the latest greatest investment bubble just before it bursts would be classic StL, so I expect DB's prediction will prove correct.

SLAM DUNK

addxb2 wrote: ↑

8:26 PM - Jan 16

No one going to talk about the plans for Chouteau and Grand? Sales tax, property tax, jobs. No concerns about this concept at all.

Yeah I see all that (for Christ's sake.. please rotate these 90°), but until it's a written requirement to have a plan for all of this and shovels hit dirt, I doubt you get this through without community dissent.

This softens the blow (or perhaps lipstick on a pig depending on what they actually develop), but we've seen plenty of the bait and switch in St. Louis.

Who is proposing all of that infill? Lawrence Group? Is it some sort of developer with a good track record? Until we know that I read this all with heavy skepticism.  And as a quid pro quo of sorts.

Yeah. I've seen too many projects here with ancillary renderings that never come to life to believe any more of that will be built (as a result of this project, at least... Iron Hill, come back!!)

I get it, we've seen plenty of proposals with flashy renderings come and go without any real construction to go with them.  But, nothing can become a reality without first a plan and those fancy renderings (which you all love to gawk at, btw) to present to the city and public.  Sounds like the Armory may NOT become a Data center, that's a win.  An underutilized warehouse gets a new, and probably long term tenant paying desperately needed tax dollar to our city...also a win.   Goodwill finds a new home, no one is getting deprived of their thrift shopping.  Hopefully some spill-over development from a repurposed Armory property.

Nothing is built or finished yet, but it sounds like our wish of the Armory not becoming a Data Center is more realistic.  Data centers need to go somewhere, and they could all be located in greenfield developments on the edges of our region...just like a significant portion of our regional "development" because it is just simply easier and more cost-effective than getting approval from every single group or individual that has an opinion.  DB...thank you for all that you do to keep us informed and being a forward thinking contributor to the city that we all love.  For that matter, thank you all for your care and passion for the Lou....let's keep it moving forward!

Works for me. Datacenters consuming old warehouse space are a great re-use. I’m not sure why Datacenters are getting so much flak, we already have many downtown….


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I’m more on board with this. Putting in a warehouse instead the armory makes a lot more sense.

Sounds more palatable than before for sure. Glad they are putting in noise pollution mitigation. The highway noise there is bad enough. 
How will electric rates be protected? 
Any on site fossil-fuel electricity generation, even just as backup? 
Will they at least cover the roof in solar panels?