Bitcoin-mining firm BlockOps presents plan to renovate Helena lumberyard, requests city approval

Ben Smith, representing BlockOps, told the Helena-West Helena City Council that his Austin-based Bitcoin-mining company has a letter of intent and a contract to purchase a former Dragon Lumberyard on Washington Street and renovate its buildings into a data-center-style mining facility.

Smith said the company already operates sites in Russellville, Moreland, Walnut Ridge, Pleasant Plains and Cabot. He described the proposed Helena site as industrial and said the company had met with Entergy engineers about power needs; he said Entergy had told them the city could allot 8 megawatts to the project and that the utility’s lead time to upgrade distribution infrastructure was about 60 days.

Smith said the project would involve about $2,000,000 in initial facility upgrades plus roughly $10.5 million for computing equipment — “about a $13,000,000 investment, give or take,” he said — and that BlockOps would initially hire three local employees and could scale to eight at full buildout. He told the council the company expects to pay a power-sale tax and other sales/use taxes, and estimated the city’s share of the power-sales tax at about $105,000 per year.

Smith outlined mitigation plans for noise and heat: he said BlockOps has used sound-retention walls, filtered louvers and fan enclosures at other sites and commissioned pre- and post-construction sound studies, adding that he had worked with state legislators on a state-level noise standard for the industry (referred to in the meeting as Act 173).

Council members asked about staffing, operating hours, construction timeline and revenue. Smith said the facility would run 24/7, that construction of the building retrofit would take “three to four weeks” once permits are in place, and that Entergy’s equipment upgrades could require roughly a $500,000 substation investment paid by the company. He told the council that BlockOps would be contractually obligated to curtail operations at times of high grid demand.

A city official told Smith the city had reviewed his application and “the city is gonna approve it this week” and outlined next steps: finalize the building permit and pay permit fees. Council members and staff thanked Smith for choosing Helena and for explaining the proposal.

Why it matters: the plant would use a sizable, dedicated power allotment and bring private investment and a small number of local jobs, while raising questions that typically accompany large-power, industrial uses: grid impacts, noise mitigation, property reuse and tax revenue flows.

Details that remain unresolved in the record include: the site acreage (the presenter referred both to 168 acres under contract and later described the parcel as 116 acres), the precise timetable for Entergy work, and the final tax/revenue calculations for the city beyond the power-sales tax estimate. The transcript records council and staff direction to proceed with permitting but does not include a formal council vote on zoning or special permits during this meeting.