Project Green and Project Spade Aim to deliver $25B to On Rural Missouri County.
Pictured Above: Time to update Montgomery County map.
Date Posted: July 21, 2026
Posted In: Projects,
From Site Selection Magazine: Tucked into east-central Missouri, part way between St. Louis and Columbia and next door to the Missouri Rhineland and wineries around the town of Hermann, sits Montgomery County, a territory of just over 11,500 people.
It’s the sort of county whose official website features a photo of the courthouse. Over the past 10 years Site Selection’s Conway Projects Database has tracked only two major facility investments there: a $1.3 million, three-job investment by Hartman Cabinetry in Jonesburg and a $13 million, 110-job potato chip plant from Uncle Ray’s Snacks & Chips in the county seat of Montgomery City.
Over two months this spring, this sleepy territory was jolted awake by two megaprojects.
Prime Day For Missouri
On June 15, not long before Amazon Prime Day, Missouri got the sort of news that makes every day a prime day, as the company announced it plans to invest $10 billion in a new data center campus in Montgomery County. Code-named Project Green, the campus will have up to 17 facilities located on a megasite in the northeast quadrant of I-70 and Highway 19.
“Today’s announcement represents more than a major investment in Missouri’s future — it represents new opportunities for Montgomery County and the surrounding region,” said Governor Mike Kehoe. “Projects like this create lasting benefits for local communities by supporting critical infrastructure improvements, generating new tax revenue for schools and public services, and strengthening the foundation for future economic growth.”
Even the fact that data centers create few jobs is turned by AWS into a positive: In a presentation to local authorities in December, Amazon presented a graphic showing how its data centers compare to commercial, industrial and residential development in terms of traffic, revenue, high pay and resource use.
Green Checks, Red Xs
The company gave itself green check marks in the low traffic category (“a low number of employees and visitors at one time”); revenue (“net positive tax revenue generation”); compensation (“staffed with highly paid local employees”); and community resource use (“little strain on resources like schools, fire, police, etc.”).
Residential got red “X”s all around, while commercial and industrial got them too for creating so much more traffic. The company’s presentation to local authorities stated plans to hire at least 150 full-time employees with average wages of $85,000. Later documents refer to the potential to create as many as 400 full-time data center positions. Meanwhile, despite the lack of traffic its operations will generate, construction is another thing altogether. Amazon says it is making several roadway improvements and building a new bridge over the Norfolk Southern Railway to replace an existing railroad crossing, so drivers will no longer have to stop and wait for trains to pass.
Hub for Innovation
What about natural resources? AWS says its power use will be subject to Ameren’s large load tariff with a separate rate structure designed to protect from any impact to resident rates. “Amazon’s investment in Montgomery County reinforces Missouri’s strong position as a hub for innovation and a state with an exceptionally skilled workforce,” said Martin J. Lyons Jr., chairman, president and CEO of Ameren Corporation, at the announcement. “We applaud local and state leaders who support economic growth and job creation while ensuring that consumers are protected.”