# Willowbend Capital, LLC Willowbend Capital, LLC is the developer of record for the "Project Boar" data center at the Port of Little Rock — "the Company" in the April 29, 2025 memorandum of understanding with the City of Little Rock and the "Grantee" on the June 25, 2025 special warranty deed conveying 383.52 acres of Port land to it. The Arkansas Secretary of State registry shows it is a Delaware shell limited liability company; news reporting identifies the principal behind it as Google. ## Corporate registration The Arkansas Secretary of State registry (primary public record, [Willowbend Capital LLC entity record](../../web%20archive/2026-05-22/sos-corp-search.ark.org/willowbend-capital-llc-sos-record.md)) shows: - A **Delaware limited liability company**, registered to transact business in Arkansas as a Foreign LLC on **2025-02-11** (filing # 811535247; status Good Standing). - Registered agent **Corporation Service Company** (300 S. Spring St., Suite 900, Little Rock); the Delaware address is a private mailbox ("PMB 160," 2801 Centerville Road, Wilmington). No principal place of business or parent disclosed. - Organizer and Manager of record: **[[Michael Montfort]]**. Willowbend Capital is the **twin of [[Forgelight Ventures, LLC]]**, the Conway data-center developer: both are Delaware LLCs registered in Arkansas the same day (2025-02-11), with the same registered agent, the same Delaware private-mailbox address, the same organizer, and near-consecutive filing numbers (Forgelight 811535239, Willowbend 811535247). ## Roles in this corpus - **Developer / MOU counterparty.** The April 29, 2025 MOU describes Willowbend Capital as "evaluating the City of Little Rock ... for a site" for "an approximately 300,000 square foot data center facility," with an anticipated investment of "approximately $1,000,000,000," "approximately 50 new high-quality jobs," and expansion to additional facilities — in exchange for a net 65% property-tax abatement for 30 years and against a $300,000/year "City Enrichment Investment" (primary public record, [Little Rock resolution and MOU](../../web%20archive/2026-05-22/www.littlerock.gov/willowbend-capital-mou.md)). The Little Rock Board of Directors authorized the MOU by resolution on 2025-04-29. - **Grantee on the Tier-1 deed.** On 2025-06-24 Willowbend Capital, LLC took 383.52 acres of Port of Little Rock land at $11,505,600.00 by Special Warranty Deed from the City of Little Rock "for the use and benefit of" the Port Authority — recorded the next day as Pulaski County Inst. # 2025033561. See [[Willowbend Capital Warranty Deed]] and [[Willowbend Capital Closing Statement]]. Buyer mailing address on the DFA Affidavit: *"5111 JB Hunt Dr Ste 300, Rogers AR 72758"* — the [[Kutak Rock LLP]] Rogers office. - **Authorized Signatory at closing.** The ALTA Settlement Statement shows [[Stuart C Hindmarsh]] of [[Kutak Rock LLP]] — not [[Michael Montfort]] — signing for Willowbend Capital as "Authorized Signatory" ([[Willowbend Capital Closing Statement]]). - **Buyer of record on the survey.** The 2025-06-19 ALTA/NSPS boundary survey by [[Pickering Firm]], prepared for [[EMH&T]], is certified to Chicago Title Insurance Company, the Little Rock Port Authority, Willowbend Capital, LLC, and EMH&T ([[Project Boar Site Survey]]). ## People - [[Michael Montfort]] — organizer / manager of record per the Arkansas SoS registry. - [[Stuart C Hindmarsh]] — Kutak Rock LLP attorney; Authorized Signatory at the 2025-06-24 closing. ## Notes The MOU names only "Willowbend Capital LLC"; the principal behind it is identified only through Tier-3 reporting, supplemented by documented structural links that — per [[D006 Synthesis]] — are corroborating structure, not channels naming the principal. *Data Center Dynamics*, relaying reporting by the *Arkansas Democrat-Gazette* (which cited two unnamed sources), reported that the Port of Little Rock data center is Google's (web research 2026-05-22, [DCD report](../../web%20archive/2026-05-22/www.datacenterdynamics.com/google-behind-1bn-data-center-in-little-rock-arkansas-report.md)). Per [[T003 - Shell-LLC Principal Attribution for Forgelight and Willowbend|T003]] and [[D003 Synthesis]] (2026-05-24, verdict: `resolved-via-D003`), the wiki preserves the *DCD/ADG* reporting but frames it as **Tier-3-uncorroborated** rather than "reportedly Google's." The corpus's *confirmed* Google identification at [[Altitude Capital, LLC]] / West Memphis rested on three independent Tier-1 channels naming Google (deed chain, water-use registration naming "Google Data Center," sworn EAL CEO testimony, APSC Order findings). The [[2026-05 Little Rock Port Authority Produces Project Boar Records|2026-05-26 Bryan Day production]] added a documented Tier-1 **structural link**: - **Shared counsel with confirmed-Google Project Pyramid.** The Project Boar deed was prepared by and the Project Pyramid GROOT LLC contact address is the same Kutak Rock LLP attorney ([[Stuart C Hindmarsh]]) at the same Rogers, Arkansas office (5111 W. JB Hunt Drive, Suite 300). Per [[Kutak Rock LLP]], this is a Tier-1 data point favoring a common-principal reading, but its weight depends on whether Kutak Rock's Rogers office is a regional data-center transactional practice (alternative reading: same firm, unrelated clients). The shared-counsel overlap — combined with the shared-organizer overlap ([[Michael Montfort]] across both [[Forgelight Ventures, LLC]] and Willowbend) — is documented corroborating structure, but per [[D006 Synthesis]] (2026-06-03) vendor and counsel overlaps do not count as channels toward naming the principal: the count of Tier-1 channels **naming** the Willowbend principal remains **zero**. The wiki records the cluster as a **documented multi-state Google-linked nominee apparatus** with the principal unidentified, and continues to frame the Google attribution as Tier-3-uncorroborated. The un-bracketing trigger on T003 is a Tier-1 Arkansas channel naming the principal (a permitted-facility filing naming Google as operator, an SEC filing or Form D naming a Google-affiliated entity at the Port site, or a definitive Chamber FOIA disclosure). [[Bryan Day]]'s 2026-05-26 afternoon clarifying response — *"there is nothing in my files related to Google other than what I have shared with you"* — used the project name "Google" in coordinate position with "Project Boar" and "Willowbend." His framing tracks the original FOIA request's *"including any Google entity"* language; the wiki therefore reads this as responsive framing rather than an independent Tier-1 attribution by the Port executive director. None of the five produced documents in [[2026-05 Little Rock Port Authority Produces Project Boar Records|the Port's production]] names Google. ## Currency note (2026-06-03) The [[2026-06 Little Rock City Board Adopts Data-Center Regulations Ordinance|City of Little Rock data-center regulations ordinance]] (adopted 2026-06-02) **applies to this Port project**, because it has not yet received city permits — imposing the heavy-industrial-zoning requirement, the 900-foot residential setback, and the air-/high-efficiency-liquid-cooling-with-no-primary-groundwater rules on any build (web research 2026-06-03, [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette](../../web%20archive/2026-06-03/arkansasonline.com/little-rock-approves-data-center-regulations-2026-06-02.md)). At that 2026-06-02 meeting, **a Google official (Laurel Brown) publicly addressed the Board about the project**, stating the company "remains in the early due-diligence stages," that "we're just at the beginning," and that "a final decision to build" had not been reached; per the report Google "is seeking to build a complex with five main buildings of more than 280,000 square feet each ... likely to require more than 100 megawatts." A Google representative speaking publicly *about the Port project* is a **stronger public association than the prior two-unnamed-source reporting** the D003 verdict weighed. Combined with the [[Michael Montfort]] multi-state-nominee-pattern finding (2026-06-03), it bore directly on the [[T003 - Shell-LLC Principal Attribution for Forgelight and Willowbend|T003]] question of whether the Google attribution should be re-adjudicated — a question the [[D006 Synthesis|D006]] dialectic ran on 2026-06-03. The D006 verdict held the restraint: it remains **Tier-3 reporting**; no Tier-1 primary record (deed, permit, SEC/Form D, sworn testimony, regulatory order) names Google as Willowbend's principal, so the wiki records the strengthened pattern as a documented multi-state Google-linked nominee apparatus while continuing to hold the principal unidentified. ## State environmental record (item-6 supplemental, 2026-06-12) The [[Project Boar CWA 401 Pre-File and Application|DEE-DEQ item-6 supplemental]] supplies Willowbend's first state environmental-permit footprint — the **CWA § 401 track**: - **Pre-file meeting request** HQK-8PR3-3Q7SF (signed 2026-02-10; [[Michael Montfort]], "**Counsel**") and **Individual 401 application** HQK-JXSH-EBZ8H (v2, 2026-03-16; Montfort, "**Manager**"), with [[Harbor Environmental]]/Terracon as consultant and [[Jim Wise]] as DEQ reviewer. - The application certifies Willowbend has "**the primary management and ultimate decision-making responsibility over the operation of the activity**" — the shell formally certifying operational control of the project. - Impacts: **15.10 ac jurisdictional wetlands**, 3,505 lf of intermittent drains, a 124.5 ac-ft detention basin, 369 disturbed acres, duration "Up to 8 years"; an **Individual USACE § 404 permit, SWL-2026-00038**, is listed. - The project is described to DEQ only as a "**light industrial complex**" — the words "data center" appear nowhere in Willowbend's § 401 filings, in contrast to Groot's USACE notice ("data center campus consisting of five large-scale data center buildings") and the City's own MOU record. No document names a principal; **T003 restraint unchanged**. ## Currency note (2026-06-11) Two further developments, both Tier-3 but the first **first-party**: - **Google's own project website claims the purchase in the first person.** littlerockdatacenter.com (archived 2026-06-11): *"In April 2026, Google confirmed that we have purchased land at the Port of Little Rock for a potential data center"* — the land whose recorded deed runs to Willowbend Capital, LLC (web research 2026-06-11, [littlerockdatacenter.com capture](../../web%20archive/2026-06-11/www.littlerockdatacenter.com/google-littlerock-purchase-confirmation-2026-06-11.md)). This is the putative principal publicly identifying itself with the Willowbend parcels — categorically different from third-party reporting, though still not a Tier-1 Arkansas record channel. Recorded on [[T003 - Shell-LLC Principal Attribution for Forgelight and Willowbend|T003]] as a 2026-06-11 new input, **status unchanged, flagged for maintainer review** (prospective D007). - **The 2026-06-10 invitation-only meeting.** Google (via PR firm Cooley Public Strategies) held an invitation-only meeting at First United Methodist Church on the project; public affairs representative Laurel Brown: "There are a number of permits that still need to be filed" — confirming the pre-permit posture under the city's June 2 ordinance ([[2026-06 Google Holds an Invitation-Only Meeting on the Port Data Center]]).