CRG Unveils Smaller, Refined Design for Proposed Festus Data Center
New project website gives residents a direct place to review plans, ask questions, and stay informed.
CRG has released a refined conceptual design for the proposed Festus data center.
By The Jefferson Review
CRG has released a refined conceptual design for its proposed Festus data center, presenting city officials with a smaller project footprint, expanded buffers, preserved green space, and a new public information website aimed at keeping residents informed.
The updated proposal, announced June 29, marks a significant revision from the company’s original concept. According to CRG, the new plan calls for approximately 600 megawatts across four single-story buildings, making the project roughly 40 percent smaller than what was originally envisioned.
The company said the refined design was shaped by community feedback and includes expanded setbacks, landscaped berms, closed-loop cooling, Tier 4 backup generators, and more permanent preservation of the property’s natural features.
A major part of the announcement is the launch of www.festusforward.com, a dedicated website where residents can review project materials, follow updates, submit questions, and view the presentation delivered to the city.
For residents who want to understand the proposal beyond social media posts or secondhand discussion, the website offers a direct place to see CRG’s materials and learn more about what is being proposed.
“We challenged ourselves to build a better project, not simply the largest one we were entitled to build.”
Bob Clark, Executive Chairman and Founder of Clayco and CRG
“From the beginning, we said we would listen, and this plan reflects that commitment,” said Bob Clark, Executive Chairman and Founder of Clayco and CRG. “We challenged ourselves to build a better project, not simply the largest one we were entitled to build. The result is a smaller footprint, greater preservation, stronger buffers, and a design that responds directly to what we’ve heard from the people of Festus.”
Under the updated concept, CRG says the nearest residential home would be approximately 1,200 feet from any data center building. The company also says more than half of the site — about 188 acres, or 52 percent of the property — would remain permanently preserved. That preservation would protect the ridgeline and existing tree buffers, two issues that have been important to many residents following the project.
The project would also use a closed-loop cooling system, which CRG says would recycle water while producing little to no wastewater discharge. Backup generators would be Tier 4 generators, and CRG says testing would be limited to daytime hours.
CRG also outlined a series of proposed community commitments tied to the project. Those include $40 million in community benefit payments over 10 years, $5 million toward a new firehouse, funding for a new workforce training center, no real property tax abatement, no cap on Gross Receipts Utility Tax, a $3 million pledge for residential relief if electric usage exceeds 1 gigawatt, a voluntary residential buyout program, and a $10 million developer-funded decommissioning bond.
The proposed data center represents an estimated $6 billion investment. CRG says the project is expected to create approximately 1,000 construction jobs at peak and more than 200 permanent jobs once operational.
Chris McKee, President of CRG, said the revised design reflects meaningful changes to the proposal.
“This presentation represents meaningful changes, not just commitments,” McKee said. “We reduced the footprint, lowered the building heights, expanded the buffers, and increased the amount of land preserved because that’s what we heard from the community.”
McKee also said www.festusforward.com is intended to give residents a more direct line of communication with the company as the project continues through the process.
The proposed Festus data center has been one of the most discussed local development issues in recent months, with supporters pointing to investment, jobs, utility tax revenue, and community benefits, while critics have raised questions about scale, infrastructure, utilities, noise, environmental concerns, and neighborhood impacts.
CRG’s latest announcement appears designed to address many of those concerns directly by reducing the scale of the project and adding more specific commitments around buffers, preservation, cooling, residential distance, and public communication.
The company emphasized that the presentation is not the end of the process, but another step in what it described as a long-term partnership with the city.
Residents who want to learn more about the proposed project are encouraged to visit www.festusforward.com, review the presentation materials, submit questions, and sign up for project updates.
As the discussion continues, residents will be best served by reviewing the details for themselves, asking questions, and staying engaged throughout the process.
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