# GROOT LLC GROOT LLC is the limited-liability company that assembled the ~1,117-acre Project Pyramid data-center site on Bollinger Road, West Memphis, in 2024 and conveyed it to the City of West Memphis in 2025. It is the owner of record on the Crittenden County property cards. ## People - [[Stuart C Hindmarsh]] — contact of record ("c/o") for the LLC. ## Roles in this corpus - **Land assembler.** GROOT LLC bought the site's parcels from [[Bollinger Bros Inc]] / the Bollinger family in November 2024 for ~$35.7M in recorded deed consideration ([[Project Pyramid Site Property Record Card]], PRC.pdf p. 1) — see [[2024-11 GROOT LLC Acquires the Bollinger Road Site]]. - **Grantor to the City.** GROOT LLC conveyed the entire site to the [[City of West Memphis]] on 2025-11-07 for $0 (deed 2025/05083) — see [[2025-11 GROOT LLC Conveys the Project Pyramid Site to the City of West Memphis]]. - The county parcels' legal descriptions all reference *"EXHIBIT OF THE GROOT LLC PROPERTIES"* (PRC.pdf p. 1). ## State environmental permits (DEE-DEQ SEEK/PDS, 2026-06-08) The [[deq/seek-pds-data-center-permits-2026-06-08/_overview|DEE-DEQ production]] adds the West Memphis site's state environmental-permit footprint, under **two AFINs**: - **AFIN 18-01005 — "Groot LLC – Project Pyramid"** (SEEK site 5189257, 947 Bollinger Rd): the construction-stormwater record — CGP `ARR150000` → coverages **`ARR158639`** and **`ARR158925`**, three NOI families, SWPPPs, erosion-control plans, and the USACE wetland Permit Narrative (File MVM-2024-216). SEEK classifies it **SIC 7374 "Computer Processing and Data Preparation"**. See [[Project Pyramid SEEK Construction-Stormwater Records]]. - **AFIN 18-01011 — "Groot LLC"** (the air-permit registration, "South of Rainer Rd / East of Waverly Rd"): the **[[Project Pyramid Title V Air Permit (2507-AOP-R0)|Title V Air Operating Permit 2507-AOP-R0]]** (initial permit, application received 9/25/2025) — **up to 238 diesel/HVO emergency engines (232 Tier 2 emergency-generator units), 60 cooling towers, and roadway emissions**. This is the first Tier-1 quantification of the facility's operational scale; it confirms **wet/evaporative cooling** (60 towers) without naming the water source. Engineer of record: [[Kimley-Horn]] (Marissa Higgins) — the same firm on AVAIO's [[ADP Little Rock Data Hub, LLC]] site. General contractor: Turner Construction (Jeff Borgsmiller). ## Corporate stack (Tier-1, per the Groot Delegation of Authority) The DEE-DEQ file's **Delegation of Authority** documents Groot's ownership/signing chain at Tier-1: **[[GDH Holdings Inc.]]** (a Delaware corporation) is the **sole member** of Groot LLC; **[[Gabor Turschl]]** is GDH Holdings' President/Treasurer/Secretary; and signing authority runs to **[[David Thomas]], "Attorney at [[Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati]]."** [[Michael Montfort]] is named "Manager" on the air permit and signs SEEK submissions from `[email protected]`. So both recurring shell-officers are confirmed **Wilson Sonsini attorneys** — outside formation counsel, not principals (see [[T003 - Shell-LLC Principal Attribution for Forgelight and Willowbend|T003]] "New input (2026-06-08)"). ## Item-6 supplemental (2026-06-12) — the permit-negotiation record The [[deq/pre-permitting-correspondence-2026-06-11/_overview|DEE-DEQ item-6 supplemental]] adds the working file *behind* the air permit and the water-quality correspondence: - **DEQ refused to draft permit 2507-AOP-R0 until Groot's disclosure statement named someone**: "That disclosure still does not list anyone as officers or owners of Groot LLC… You will need to speak to Golly" ([[Shawn Hutchings]], 2025-10-20), plus rejection of a **self-signed delegation letter**; resolved 2025-10-30 by accepting [[Michael Montfort]] as "Manager." Engine "sizes, and what they power are **only in the confidential application**." A site-wide **249-tpy NOx cap** (one ton under the PSD threshold) was the negotiated synthetic-minor architecture. See [[Groot Air Permit Pre-Draft Correspondence]]. - **[[David Essex]] (`[email protected]`) is CC'd throughout the pre-draft review** — Google personnel inside Groot's permit file at Tier 1. - The **USACE/DEQ joint public notice MVM-2024-216** (2024-12-10) states the purpose plainly — "a **data center campus consisting of five large-scale data center buildings**" on the 1,178-acre Bollinger Road parcel — and lists the applicant as "Groot LLC, **Attn: Stuart Hindmarsh**, 251 Little Falls Drive, Wilmington, Delaware… (479) 250-9705." The STAA record (20 stream crossings; approved as STAA 20250025, 2025-05-08) and the AR SoS printout (filing 811523202, filed 2024-11-13; "DAVID THOMAS — Incorporator/Organizer; MICHAEL J. MONTFORT — Manager") complete the water-side file. See [[Project Pyramid USACE Public Notice and Water Quality Track]]. - The **[[2024-10 AEDC Convenes the Project Pyramid Pre-Permitting Introduction|October 2024 AEDC introduction]]** shows the project entering DEQ as "Project Acorn"/"Project Pyramid" with AEDC instructed "I do not share any specific details at this time." ## Notes GROOT LLC's address of record (Crittenden assessor) is *"C/O STUART C HINDMARSH, 5111 W JB HUNT DR STE 300, ROGERS, AR 72758"* (PRC.pdf p. 9); its DEQ-record addresses are CSC's Wilmington DE offices (251 Little Falls Drive / 2801 Centerville Road PMB 160). > [!web-research-unresolved] The Arkansas Department of Agriculture's water-use records name the facility on this site the "Google Data Center" (Facility ID 900055) — see [[Google Data Center Water-Use Registration]] and [[Google LLC]] — so the corpus confirms the Bollinger Road site is a Google data center. What remains unestablished is GROOT LLC's corporate relationship to Google. The 2026-06-08 DEQ Delegation of Authority advances the corporate chain one layer — sole member **[[GDH Holdings Inc.]]** (officer **[[Gabor Turschl]]**) — but does **not** tie GDH Holdings to Google or to the other Arkansas shells; that remains a Secretary-of-State / registry question, recorded as documented and not inferred (per [[D006 Synthesis]]).