St. Louis mayor working on water, electric deal with Armory data center developers

St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer is actively negotiating with developers of a proposed $3.1 billion data center project near the city's Armory entertainment venue. The data center, a 487,000-square-foot facility, is planned for the former Famous-Barr warehouse building, with an adjacent Armory building to be converted into luxury office space for the data center user. Local investor Rod Thomas and Las Vegas-based real estate firm Contour are spearheading the development. Mayor Spencer has temporarily delayed the project's progress as she seeks to finalize a deal to track water and electric usage, according to sources close to the Post-Dispatch. The city's focus is on securing a back-office agreement regarding utility consumption for this significant development.