# 2025-04 Conway City Council Approves Project Stratus MOU On April 1, 2025, the Conway City Council voted 8-0 in a Special City Council Meeting to approve a four-party Memorandum of Understanding among [[Forgelight Ventures, LLC]] (referred to throughout the meeting as "the Company"), the [[City of Conway]], [[Conway Corporation]], and [[The Conway Foundation]]. The MOU committed the City to support a net 65% property-tax abatement for 30 years via an Act 9 Industrial Revenue Bond, established a 0.75% Entergy high-voltage franchise-fee structure to be enacted by separate ordinance, and laid out the cooling-water infrastructure framework using Tupelo Bayou WWTP treated effluent. The Company was characterized only as "a US-based Fortune 100 company" — the Chamber of Commerce's [[Brad Lacy]] declined to identify it to Council. ## Sources - [[Project Stratus MOU and April 1 Special Council Meeting]] — the source page with the MOU text and the executed April 1 special meeting minutes (Tier-1). - The same minutes were previously web-archived at [Tier-2 from media.conwayarkansas.gov](../../web%20archive/2026-05-22/conwayarkansas.gov/04-01-2025-special-council-mtg.md); the Tier-1 anchor now supersedes for citation. ## What happened The meeting was called to order at 5:00 PM by Mayor [[Bart Castleberry]] with City Clerk [[Denise Hurd]] performing roll call. All eight council members were present and acting: Andy Hawkins, David Grimes, Drew Spurgers, Shelley Mehl, Mark Ledbetter, Spencer Hawks, Theodore Jones Jr., and Shelia Isby. The Economic Development Committee item — listed as "Conway Area Chamber of Commerce, Conway Development Corporation, Conway Downtown Partnership, & Conway Corporation" — was the sole substantive item on the agenda: "Consideration to approve a memorandum of understanding for a special economic development project." [[Brad Lacy]] (Conway Area Chamber of Commerce) addressed the Council first, telling them "this community development project is larger and more involved than has been common." He told the Council "this MOU is different in that it involves three entities and the company: the company, the City, Conway Corporation and the Conway Foundation." Lacy was unable to identify the Company by name: "Not being able to share the name of the company, Mr. Lacy shared some characteristics of the company with the Council. Councilman Hawkins confirmed that Conway Corp had reviewed the matter and was in accord with the proposal. Councilman Grimes asked at what point the name of the company would be released. Mr. Lacy was not able to give a timeline on that point." Lacy specifically confirmed "that this project is not a data mining center" (distinguishing it from cryptocurrency mining) and stated "the City is not obligated to any debt associated with the project." Lacy explained the tax-abatement structure: "the tax abatement would result from an Act 9 Bond, or Industrial Revenue Bond, so however long that agreement is, it would be the length of term for the property tax abatement. Councilman Jones inquired about the 30-year period, and Mr. Lacy replied that 25-30 years has been a standard term length." [[Jamie Gates]] (Conway Area Chamber of Commerce) followed Lacy, explaining the long-term character of the project and noting "the terms in the MOU stating that the City would not increase the costs for the permitting and fees greater than the amount of the Consumer Price Index during the course of the project or add special fees." Gates "explained the process that would be used to handle grey water studies and design" and "the medium and high voltage requirements for electricity to be negotiated by Conway Corp." [[Brett Carroll]] (Conway Corporation) spoke on the grey-water reuse: "Brett Carroll, of Conway Corporation addressed the Council stating that grey water use in this type of project has been done in other places, but not in Arkansas to his knowledge." Councilman Spurgers asked about The Conway Foundation; Lacy answered that "Conway Foundation is governed by a board and was created to accept gifts or donations and then oversee the reinvestment into the community." This is the corpus's first description of the Foundation's structure. "There was no one from the public to speak for or against the matter." Mayor Castleberry brought the matter back to the Council. Councilman Hawkins made the motion to approve; Councilwoman Mehl seconded. **The motion carried 8-0.** ## Significance This is the founding decision for Project Stratus on the City of Conway side. From this MOU flow: - The annexation and rezone proceedings of [[2025-04 Conway Planning Commission Recommends Project Stratus Annexation and Rezone|April 21]] and [[2025-04 Conway City Council Adopts O-25-37 O-25-38 and O-25-39|April 22]]; - The Act 9 industrial-revenue-bond process now in pre-issuance design; - The Tupelo Bayou WWTP grey-water cooling infrastructure that [[Conway Corporation]] is now designing (per the [[Project Stratus Permits Sequencing and Stormwater|EMH&T-Conway stormwater coordination]] beginning January 2025); - The Entergy high-voltage franchise-fee ordinance not yet enacted; - The Lollie Road relocation right-of-way exchange not yet on a public agenda. The April 1, 2025 meeting also marks the **April 2, 2025 staff knowledge gap** documented in the [[Conway Internal Staff Teams Chats on Project Stratus|Planning Department Teams chats]] — staff did not know what the prospective annexation was for as late as the day after the MOU vote. The Chamber controlled project information through the pre-application period. The 8-0 vote occurred without public comment because no member of the public spoke for or against — consistent with the [[Project Stratus Public-Comment Correspondence Record|sparse early-2025 public-comment correspondence]] (the heavy constituent opposition didn't emerge until spring 2026, after the staff [[April 2026 FAQ Project Stratus|FAQ]]).