Economic Development Community Sustainability Success Stories

November 14, 2025

TierPoint Data Center Expands Revitalization of Downtown St. Louis

To meet strong demand for data center services, longtime St. Louis resident TierPoint is investing up to $150 million in downtown St. Louis for another location near Locust Street.

Headquartered in St. Louis, TierPoint facilities include 40 world-class data centers across 20 U.S. markets coast to coast. When looking to expand in July 2025, the business-friendly environment of Missouri—including low corporate income tax rates, data center incentives, sales/use tax exemptions and low electric rates—cemented the city as the ideal location for their expansion plans. TierPoint had an aggressive schedule that projected the data center to be online in less than 12 weeks.

Power Capacity Planning: Assessing Infrastructure Needs

The power needed to run data centers requires a unique approach to both infrastructure and capacity. The TierPoint team requested that the Ameren Missouri team review two locations, one of which was downtown. The TierPoint team decided to proceed with the downtown location as the cost and timing aligned better with their development plans.

Business Expansion in Downtown St. Louis  

The downtown St. Louis site was an ideal candidate due to its location, size, structural integrity, and access to utility power and fiber routes. The Ameren Missouri division engineering team completed a load analysis and determined that the existing infrastructure could accommodate the capacity required for TierPoint’s needs. After the analysis, TierPoint submitted a construction request to further their business expansion plans.

Economic Development Planning Creates a Strong Support System

The Ameren Missouri economic development and division engineering teams got involved early in the process to create a robust plan to support TierPoint’s downtown phase 1 requirements. The first phase included building out 22,600 square feet of data center production space.

Upgrading for TierPoint: Meeting Capacity Requirements

For TierPoint’s initial 5 MW phase 1 (which included 3 MW of critical load), it was determined that the existing 4 kV system didn’t provide proper capacity; however, upgrading to a 12 kV distribution system would achieve the necessary capacity. 

This upgrade was critical, as TierPoint had a six-month initial phase timeline driven by Ameren Missouri’s ability to upgrade the transformers, alongside TierPoint upgrading the service inside the building. Both upgrades were interim steps to get TierPoint operational. The large amount of design work required weekly meetings between TierPoint and Ameren Missouri to keep the project schedule intact.

Streamlined Communication Keeps Project on Track

Weekly meetings with underground engineers, planning engineers, facilities, operations and the construction/design contractor ensured all project details were effectively addressed to keep the project on schedule. The design and build milestones for the infrastructure (including procuring switchgear, transformers, conduit and metering equipment) were key project touchpoints to keep the tight schedule. 

By acting as a single point of contact for the customer, the economic development team coordinated all requests and follow-ups with the Ameren Missouri division engineering team. This streamlined workflow allowed each party to concentrate on their specific responsibilities, resulting in timely solutions and keeping project momentum steady.

Strategic Collaboration in Urban Infrastructure Revitalization

The collaborative efforts between TierPoint and Ameren Missouri exemplified how strategic planning and communication can support infrastructure development and quickly bring a data center online in an urban setting. 

Subsequent phases of the investment plan will build out additional space in the building, scaling the facility over time to 20 MW of utility power and supporting additional construction and permanent jobs for St. Louis.

“We want to especially thank the team at Ameren Missouri for their above-and-beyond collaboration in finding a way to enable the power required for the facility to serve our anchor tenant and future customers,” said Jerry Kent, Chairman and CEO of TierPoint. “As elsewhere, we expect the new facility will be a landing spot for large-scale, high-density colocation services required for artificial intelligence and other computer-intensive, GPU-accelerated workloads.”

Connect with Ameren Missouri’s economic development team to see how they can help you connect with the right strategic partners to streamline your construction process.