A lease for a converted industrial power site in the Midwest still has not been signed. Its backers continue to say signing is close. In a press release dated Oct. 26, 2026, and furnished to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as Exhibit 99.1, Empery Digital said its partner Hunt Properties "continues to advance the 15-year triple net lease" for the facility and "expects to execute the lease in the near term."

Empery Digital (NASDAQ: EMPD) describes itself as employing a bitcoin treasury strategy while expanding into AI infrastructure and data center investments. The update is the company's latest public statement on a deal first announced in June. In that deal, Empery agreed to buy a 25% interest in the private entity acquiring the site. The release does not name the site's location or the prospective tenant, and neither do the other sources DataCenterFeed reviewed.

The site, as the companies describe it

In the Oct. 26 release, Empery describes the property as offering 150 megawatts of power with an owned substation and the potential to expand to approximately 300 megawatts. Hunt Properties gave the same figures in its own Oct. 12 update, distributed by Business Wire. Hunt called the property a 150-megawatt facility with an owned substation and the "opportunity to upgrade capacity to approximately 300 megawatts."

Coverage of the original June announcement by Pulse 2.0 added more detail. According to that report:

  • The approximately 150 MW is currently available under an existing power agreement with a local utility.
  • A recent load study confirmed the facility's ability to nearly double its available power capacity to approximately 300 MW.
  • For the past three years, the site had operated as a power-intensive industrial site with an owned substation and related infrastructure.

None of the sources give a timeline for the possible expansion to 300 MW or say whether the utility has approved it. The Oct. 26 release and Hunt's Oct. 12 release present the 300 MW figure as a "potential" or an "opportunity," while Pulse 2.0 attributes it to a load study.

What Empery is paying, and what it is not

According to the Oct. 26 release, Empery agreed to invest $65 million for a 25% interest in the private entity acquiring the facility. Pulse 2.0's June report describes this as a definitive agreement and said the investment was expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions. The sources reviewed for this article do not say whether that closing has happened. Pulse 2.0 reported that Lake Street Capital Markets served as financial advisor to the acquiring entity and Davis Polk & Wardwell as its legal counsel; Clear Street and Ropes & Gray advised Empery.

The lease structure is central to the deal. Under a triple-net lease, the tenant pays the property's operating costs on top of rent. Empery's release says the tenant "will be expected to fund the data center buildout, power usage and operating costs," with Empery's funding obligation limited to its initial $65 million investment. The release says the 15-year lease is expected to serve "high investment grade counterparties." It does not say how buildout of a facility this size would be financed beyond the tenant's expected obligations.

The $1 billion figure

The largest number tied to the project came from the June announcement. As reported by Pulse 2.0, an affiliate of Hunt Properties, the managing member of the private entity, executed a non-binding letter of intent to finalize a triple net lease that "could potentially produce $1 billion in payments." Pulse 2.0 described the counterparty only as a leading provider of compute that services a global leader in AI computing hardware, and named neither company.

Readers should keep three points in mind about that figure:

  • It comes from a non-binding letter of intent, not a signed lease.
  • Pulse 2.0's report of the announcement described it as what the lease "could potentially" produce.
  • As of the Oct. 26 release, the 15-year lease had not been executed. Both the Oct. 12 Hunt release and the Oct. 26 Empery release describe signing as expected in the near term, not completed.

The Oct. 26 release does not repeat the $1 billion figure, and it does not update it.

Context from the filing

Most of Empery's release is about the company's own balance sheet and share repurchases, not the data center. As of Oct. 23, Empery said it held 1,018 bitcoin, approximately $70 million in cash and approximately $35 million in debt. It also said it repurchased 122,955 shares in the week ending Oct. 23 under a $200 million share repurchase program, with approximately $50 million remaining available.

Hunt Properties' Oct. 12 release also discussed Empery's governance. It quoted Hunt Properties chairman Al Allred on Empery's current board and management team and said Hunt had voted its shares to elect the company's proposed nine nominees. This article covers only the data center facts in the releases.

What is still unknown

The public record so far leaves several questions open:

  • Location. No source reviewed names the state, county or municipality, and the sources describe the location only as the "Midwest."
  • Tenant. Pulse 2.0's June report describes the prospective lessee only as a leading provider of compute that services a global leader in AI computing hardware, and names neither. The Oct. 26 release refers only to "high investment grade counterparties."
  • Utility. The existing power agreement is with a "local utility," which is not identified in the sources.
  • Timing. "Near term" is the only timeframe given for signing the lease. No source gives a date for when buildout would begin or when the facility would be energized for AI workloads.

What Happens Next

The next on-the-record step is execution of the 15-year triple-net lease. Empery's Oct. 26 release says Hunt Properties "expects to execute the lease in the near term," and Hunt's Oct. 12 release says execution is expected "in the near term." Neither company gives a date.

Sources