ST. LOUIS — A local real estate investor has plans to turn the shuttered Armory entertainment complex in Midtown into a data center, in what could be the first project to test the city's new rules on the high-tech facilities.

Rod Thomas of Creve Coeur-based TriStar Properties has signed an option to buy the Armory from prolific city developer Green Street Real Estate Ventures for $25 million — and repurpose it as a data center, documents filed with the city of St. Louis show.

Moreover, Thomas has filed plans with the city to build a second data center on the Armory's parking lot. Thomas recently told a neighborhood development board that the second data center alone would raise $20 million a year in taxes and employ 45 people full-time with average salaries of $130,000.

Green Street Pri

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