PERSPECTIVE: Data Centers Move From Prospect to Reality as Workforce Questions Take Center Stage
Date Posted: March 17, 2026
Posted In: Discussion, Environment/Sustainability, Featured, Projects, Workforce,
by Tom Finan, Executive Director, Construction Forum
The conversation around data centers in the St. Louis region has shifted.
It is no longer whether they will be built. It is now how they will be built—and who will build them.
Earthmoving is expected to begin Monday, March 23, on Project Spade in Montgomery County near New Florence. Multiple sources in the contractor and labor community indicate that Gilbane and PARIC are serving as contractors on the project. Several sources confirmed that the end user is Google.
While formal public announcements remain limited, activity on the ground signals that these projects are moving from planning into execution.
Substantial Scale
Project Spade is one of two large-scale data center campuses planned in Montgomery County.
According to Data Center Map, the Project Spade campus encompasses approximately 910 acres in the southeast quadrant of the I-70 and Highway 19 interchange. Roughly 780 acres lie in unincorporated Montgomery County, with an additional 130 acres within the city limits of New Florence.
The core of the project includes three primary buildings, each designed with more than 1.08 million square feet under roof. Supporting infrastructure is extensive. The site includes stormwater basins, multiple substations (both Ameren-owned and developer-installed), a guard station, visitor center, pump house, and water filtration facilities. The site will be fully fenced with controlled access points.
Montgomery County Planning and Zoning has classified these support elements as integral to the data center use, allowing the project to proceed as a permitted-by-right development within the Commercial Zoning District.
Nearby, Project Green represents an even larger undertaking, with plans spanning roughly 1,000 acres and a multi-building campus that has been widely identified as an Amazon data center development.
Test of Workforce Capacity
Taken together, these projects — and additional discussions involving Alberici on Project Green and ARCO on a potential data center development at the Armory site in the City of St. Louis, as well as other projects in earlier stages — represent a pipeline of uncommon scale that will test the region’s construction capacity in real time.
“A year ago, this wasn’t even part of the conversation. Now it’s something we’re dealing with every day.”
— John Stiffler, St. Louis Building and Construction Trades Council
As that pipeline moves closer to reality, the central issue for the local industry is workforce.
Contractors and union leaders are already focused on how to staff multiple concurrent mega-projects. The emerging approaches being explored include incentives to attract out-of-market workers, accelerated recruitment of apprentices, and potential flexibility within traditional apprenticeship structures.
One local healthcare construction buyer said he is finding it difficult to hire electrical contractors willing to do projects such as outlets for labs when they can get higher production rates in the data center market.
Competing With Other Markets
John Stiffler, executive secretary-treasurer of the St. Louis Building and Construction Trades Council, said that just a year ago data center construction was not part of the workforce conversation. Today, he said, it is a daily topic as the scale of projects coming into the region becomes clearer. In other markets, he noted, the pressure is already evident. In Des Moines, premiums of up to $20 per hour are being paid in some trades to meet demand, he said.
Frank Jacobs, business manager of IBEW Local 1, pointed specifically to demand for electricians, noting that in Kansas City—where multiple large projects are underway—base wages are lower and contracts do not include per diem for travelers. By contrast, he said, St. Louis’s stronger wage and benefit package could position the region to attract skilled electrical workers from outside markets.
Opportunity Significant, Challenge Clear
For St. Louis, the opportunity is significant—billions in investment, thousands of construction jobs, and a foothold in the next generation of digital infrastructure.
But the challenge is just as clear.
Delivering these projects will require not just capital and coordination, but a workforce strategy that can scale quickly enough to meet demand without compromising quality, safety, or long-standing standards.
The dirt beginning to move in Montgomery County is an early signal.
What follows will determine whether the region can not only attract projects of this scale—but deliver them.