Michael Montfort - Arkansas Data Centers

# Michael Montfort Michael Montfort is the organizer/manager of record for at least **three** Delaware shell LLCs tied to Arkansas data-center projects: [[Forgelight Ventures, LLC]] (the Conway developer of record), [[Willowbend Capital, LLC]] (the Port of Little Rock "Project Boar" developer), and [[Spark Innovations, LLC]] (named on the Conway Project Stratus NDAs and reported as an early affiliate of the confirmed-Google West Memphis / [[GROOT LLC]] site). ## Role and affiliations Montfort appears in the Arkansas corpus as a corporate organizer/manager of record; no employer or affiliation is established in the Arkansas primary records. External reporting (Tier-3), however, places him in a **recurring multi-state pattern**: a St. Louis Public Radio / KCUR investigation (2025-09-08) found Montfort and a co-officer, **David Thomas**, listed as the same two registered officers on **at least seven LLCs across four states (Arkansas, Missouri, Indiana, Virginia), all tied to early-stage Google data-center projects** (web research 2026-06-03, [STLPR](../../web%20archive/2026-06-03/stlpr.org/documents-link-secretive-st-charles-data-center-google-2025-09-08.md); [KCUR](../../web%20archive/2026-06-03/kcur.org/google-missouri-data-center-st-charles-2025-09-08.md)). This is consistent with a **recurring registered-officer / nominee function** in a Google-data-center formation apparatus — not an operating-company principal. ## Appearances in the corpus - **[[Forgelight Ventures, LLC]]** — the Arkansas Secretary of State registry lists Michael Montfort as Incorporator/Organizer and Manager of Forgelight Ventures LLC, the Conway data-center developer (primary public record, [SoS entity record](../../web%20archive/2026-05-22/sos-corp-search.ark.org/forgelight-ventures-llc-sos-record.md)). - **[[Willowbend Capital, LLC]]** — the Arkansas Secretary of State registry lists Michael Montfort as Incorporator/Organizer and Manager of Willowbend Capital LLC, the developer of the Port of Little Rock "Project Boar" data center reported to be Google's (primary public record, [SoS entity record](../../web%20archive/2026-05-22/sos-corp-search.ark.org/willowbend-capital-llc-sos-record.md)). Willowbend Capital and [[Forgelight Ventures, LLC]] are twin Delaware shells — registered in Arkansas the same day (2025-02-11), with the same registered agent, the same Delaware private-mailbox address, and near-consecutive filing numbers (811535239 / 811535247). - **[[Spark Innovations, LLC]]** — the Arkansas Secretary of State registry lists Michael Montfort as **Manager** of Spark Innovations LLC, a Delaware shell registered in Arkansas on **2024-11-25** (filing 811524872; Incorporator/Organizer **DAVID THOMAS**; same Corporation Service Company agent and 2801 Centerville Road, Wilmington DE private-mailbox building as the other two) (primary public record, [SoS entity record](../../web%20archive/2026-05-29/sos-corp-search.ark.org/spark-innovations-llc-sos-record.md), retrieved 2026-05-29). Spark Innovations is the entity named on the Conway [[Conway Corporation Project Stratus NDAs|Project Stratus staff NDAs]] (Tier-1) and is reported (Tier-3) as an early affiliate of the **confirmed-Google** West Memphis / [[GROOT LLC]] / Project Pyramid site — a Montfort shell that bridges the Conway project and a confirmed-Google site. ## Notes Montfort is the thread connecting the Conway data-center developer to the broader pattern of data-center site acquisition through Delaware shell companies in Arkansas. The Conway shell ([[Forgelight Ventures, LLC]]) and the Port of Little Rock shell ([[Willowbend Capital, LLC]]) share the same organizer-of-record, and *Data Center Dynamics* / *Arkansas Democrat-Gazette* have reported (citing two unnamed sources) that the Port of Little Rock project is Google's. Per [[T003 - Shell-LLC Principal Attribution for Forgelight and Willowbend|T003]] / [[D003 Synthesis]] (2026-05-24), Montfort's shared-organizer role is **suggestive but not dispositive** for identifying the Conway principal: the corpus does not establish whether Montfort is an in-house corporate paralegal (which would strengthen the shared-principal inference), a Delaware formation-firm partner (which would weaken it materially — Montfort could organize unrelated shells for different clients on the same day), or a contracted registry technician executing unrelated filings. This is one of the three bracketed open questions per [[D003 Synthesis]]'s `## What is bracketed` section. The wiki therefore does not name a Conway principal from the Montfort linkage alone. See [[The Conway Data Center Project]] and [[T003 - Shell-LLC Principal Attribution for Forgelight and Willowbend]]. The 2026-05-29 discovery that a **third** Montfort shell — [[Spark Innovations, LLC]] — appears both on the Conway Project Stratus NDAs (Tier-1) and (Tier-3) as an early affiliate of the **confirmed-Google** West Memphis / [[GROOT LLC]] site was adjudicated by dialectic [[D005 Synthesis|D005]] (2026-05-29), which **reaffirmed restraint** on the Conway principal question (a stronger Tier-2 structural link, not an identification). D005 also surfaced that **Montfort's professional role is now the rate-limiting fact for the whole T003 line** — whether he is an in-house officer (which would make the three-shell cluster probative of a common principal) or a Delaware formation-firm organizer (under which the cluster proves nothing) remains the dispositive open question. **Update (2026-06-03):** the STLPR/KCUR multi-state finding (above) is the first evidence bearing on that bracket. It answers the "cluster-wide enumeration" question D005 posed and points to a **recurring nominee/registered-officer role specifically across Google data-center LLCs** — which both (a) vindicates restraint on naming *Montfort* as a principal and (b) strengthens the Tier-3 inference that the Arkansas shells are Google's, because the signature is Google-data-center-specific rather than a client-agnostic CSC pattern. It remains Tier-3; no Tier-1 channel names Google at Conway/Port, so the wiki still does not assert it. See the [[T003 - Shell-LLC Principal Attribution for Forgelight and Willowbend|T003 "New input (2026-06-03)"]] section — this finding is flagged there as warranting a prospective **D006** dialectic. **Update (2026-06-12) — the item-6 supplemental adds two title datapoints.** (1) On the [[Project Boar CWA 401 Pre-File and Application|Project Boar § 401 filings]], Montfort signs the February 2026 pre-file as "**Counsel**" and the March 2026 application as "**Manager**" — and the application certifies Willowbend has "the primary management and ultimate decision-making responsibility over the operation of the activity." (2) In the [[Groot Air Permit Pre-Draft Correspondence|Groot air-permit pre-draft file]], DEQ refused to draft until the disclosure statement named an officer or owner; the resolution (2025-10-30) was Olsson's "Both titles apply to Michael Montfort but the signed pages submitted to correct the disclosure statement lists his title as 'Manager/Officer.' Manager will suffice." DEQ's water-side reviewers pressed the same question ("how he would meet the signatory requirements"). The pattern — an outside Wilson Sonsini attorney as the only disclosed officer, accepted as "Manager" across air, water, and corporate filings — is now documented in three separate DEQ tracks. No principal named; T003 unchanged. **Update (2026-06-08) — Tier-1 confirmation of the professional role:** the [[deq/seek-pds-data-center-permits-2026-06-08/_overview|DEE-DEQ production]] resolves the long-bracketed "what is Montfort's role" question at **Tier-1**. The [[GROOT LLC]] Delegation of Authority names co-officer **[[David Thomas]]** as *"Attorney at [[Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati]]"*, and Montfort is the addressee ("Manager") of the [[Project Pyramid Title V Air Permit (2507-AOP-R0)|Groot Title V air permit]] and signs SEEK submissions from **`[email protected]`** — i.e., **both recurring shell-officers are Wilson Sonsini attorneys**. This confirms Montfort is **outside formation/transaction counsel acting as a nominee signatory**, not a beneficial principal — **vindicating restraint** on naming him as a principal. It does **not** name Google as the principal of the Conway/Port shells, so [[T003 - Shell-LLC Principal Attribution for Forgelight and Willowbend|T003]] stays bracketed; see its "New input (2026-06-08)" section. (Separately, the DOA shows Groot's sole member is [[GDH Holdings Inc.]], officer [[Gabor Turschl]] — recorded as documented, no inference.)