This Tuesday, the Ferguson City Council will revisit a plan to put a data center on the old Emerson campus, a development spearheaded by lawyer-turned-real estate mogul Jim Onder. The council narrowly rejected the $1.5 billion tax incentive plan in May 2026 before members Nick Kasoff and LaMika Covington announced they wanted to try again. This time, they said, Onder would be paying millions to help the community.
The money—$7.5 million over 10 years—would go to the nonprofit Ferguson Neighborhood Improvement Program. The organization works to bolster property values in Ferguson by helping young people with down payments for homes and providing grants for neighborhood improvements, among other projects. Kasoff, who represents ward 2, has explicitly linked Onder’s willingness to donate to the organization to Kasoff’s willingness to reintroduce the tax break legislation.
That’s raised hackles because the nonprofit’s president Larry Robinette has been the campaign treasurer for Kasoff as well as councilmembers LaMika Covington and David Williams…