Forgelight Ventures Data Center, Conway, Arkansas

Conway's city council approved in April 2025 a memorandum of understanding with Forgelight Ventures LLC for a $1 billion, 300,000-square-foot data center on Lollie Road in southwest Conway, Faulkner County, Arkansas, for a Fortune 100 company it has not named. The memorandum promises about 50 jobs and a tax abatement of at least 65 percent for 30 years, with a high-voltage electric franchise fee set with Entergy Arkansas, and lets the company add more buildings on the same terms.

Conway Corp is to build a pump station and pipeline from the Tupelo Bayou wastewater plant to supply cooling water, using treated wastewater rather than drinking water, and a pipeline to discharge blowdown water to the Arkansas River; Lollie Road will be moved. Jamie Gates of the Conway Development Corp. said in 2025: "Over the course of the next year, we have a lot of work to do. There will be a number of public milestones as we develop the necessary ordinances."

A year later, residents packed a May 12, 2026 council meeting so full the city capped attendance at 80 people. Jeremy Rice, who lives about 500 feet from the site, said: "It has now been over a year since I stood at this podium asking questions about this project. To this day I still do not have real answers." Leia Morshedi of the Conway First Advisory Group asked: "What are we getting for this? How are we benefiting from this?"

Emily Lane, a University of Central Arkansas professor, said: "Pre data center, this area has toxic air releases in the 98th percentile nationally." Mayor Bart Castleberry said the project remained speculative: "Economic conditions, the availability of power, etc. could cause the project to be delayed indefinitely." Conway Corp was still assessing whether it could supply enough water and electricity for a facility that size.

Residents have also protested every other Saturday morning, including on May 16, 2026, over the tax incentives, the water and the power and the lack of information about any of them. Kris Mallory, who organized the May 16 protest, said the council had "passed this without the consent of citizens."

As of the May 2026 meeting the project remained in the design phase, with no ordinances filed yet. No date has been set for the next council vote or for the ordinances Conway Development Corp promised.