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By Ron Kitchens
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With data centers becoming a kitchen table issue, communities across the country are discussing energy costs, water use and the potential local benefits stemming from this massive new infrastructure. These conversations are important, and concerns deserve honest answers, but cities cannot allow caution to harden into inaction.
The question is not whether this digital infrastructure will be built. The question is under what conditions, and which regions will capture the economic opportunities that come with it?
The St. Louis region should be looked at as a case study for how, and why, cities must secure data center development to advance innovation, while also balancing community feedback.
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Technology companies are on track to spend roughly $700 billion on data center infrastructure this year alone, and the industry already supports 5.5 million American jobs. A single data center project can support nearly 10,000 construction jobs and generate $2.4 billion in total economic output for a region. If one city turns down a data center, another will inevitably say yes and reap these immense benefits for itself.
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I have spent more than three decades leading economic development efforts across Missouri, Michigan and Texas. In every community I have served, the same lesson holds true: the regions that embrace the infrastructure of the future are the ones that win the war for jobs. In the 19th century, that infrastructure was railroads. In the 20th century, it was highways and airports. Today, cities’ economic success depends on their ability to compete in the digital economy.
We are not taking a back seat.
St. Louis is proving that a historically underestimated metro can become a major player in the digital economy by pairing next-generation infrastructure with existing regional strengths. In the St. Louis region, we hold strategic advantages in geospatial technology, agricultural technology, advanced manufacturing, biosciences, fintech, health care and defense. We aren’t debating hypothetical growth, we already have the industries capable of defining what comes next.
For example, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency opened its $1.7 billion NGA West campus in north St. Louis in 2025, anchoring a $5 billion geospatial economy that supports an estimated 27,000 jobs across Missouri and Illinois. GeoSTL is translating that anchor into a broader innovation corridor. Last month, a coalition including Amazon Web Services, Google, NVIDIA and World Wide Technology launched the Spirit of St. Louis AI Innovation Center, which will provide high-performance computing resources for researchers, startups and civic projects seeking to solve our country’s most pressing problems.
The 39 North AgTech Innovation District, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, BioSTL and Bayer form one of the most connected life science technology ecosystems in the country. The Cortex Innovation District, recently ranked as one of the strongest innovation districts in the country, is accelerating life-saving health innovations. Researchers at Washington University developed an FDA-cleared blood test that can help detect brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Saint Louis University, Harris-Stowe State University and our region’s strong network of community colleges and technical schools are generating their own breakthroughs and supporting the talent these industries need.
But our progress and ability to pioneer the future will be jeopardized if we fail to provide our current assets with the resources they need to compete in the future. Without high-capacity computing power in our region, we risk losing businesses and innovation drivers to the cities that embrace digital infrastructure. That means fewer jobs, fewer families and a weaker economy.
That is why St. Louis has prioritized a solution, demonstrating to the nation what responsible data center development can look like. The City of St. Louis spent more than a year developing a citywide regulatory framework to govern data center development, addressing land use, emissions, water consumption and neighborhood compatibility. In September, Mayor Cara Spencer signed this legislation into law, establishing a first-of-its-kind framework for balancing data center growth with community well-being.
The region is already putting this approach into practice. The roughly $3 billion Armory Innovation District is expected to generate approximately $445 million in tax revenue in its first decade, with more than $206 million going to St. Louis Public Schools. Google announced a $15 billion data center in Montgomery County, and Amazon announced a $10 billion campus nearby.
The real opportunity goes beyond any single facility. It emerges when digital infrastructure and existing regional strengths converge. The next generation of computing needs power, talent, supply chains and proximity to the industries where the technology will be deployed. That convergence is happening across the St. Louis region, and is how we spark the kind of innovation that keeps our nation competitive globally.
The midterms forced a critical conversation about how communities accommodate digital infrastructure and who benefits from it. The answer is not refusing to build, but rather to build responsibly, with clear standards, community input, enforceable conditions and a focus on long-term regional economic benefit.
The cities that seize this moment will shape the next generation of American innovation, and St. Louis intends to be one of them.
Ron Kitchens is Managing Partner of Greater St. Louis, Inc., the leading economic development organization for the 15-county St. Louis region.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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