Hagerstown Is Taking Another Step Toward Annexing Land Tied to a Data Center. You Wouldn't Know It From Reading the Agenda.

Hagerstown's October 20 work session agenda conveniently omits two minor details: Diversified Capital and the data center it plans to build.

On Tuesday, October 20, the Hagerstown Mayor and City Council will discuss an amendment to the annexation plan involving land associated with Diversified Capital’s data center development. The discussion is scheduled for 4:15 p.m., although you wouldn’t know its significance from reading the agenda.

The city identifies the item simply as “Amendment to Annexation Plan A-2026-02 (Burkholder-McDade).” No mention of Diversified Capital. No mention of a data center. No explanation that annexing this property into Hagerstown would put it outside Washington County’s one-year data center moratorium. It’s almost as though someone went out of their way to make sure residents wouldn’t recognize what was being discussed.

This would be less concerning if both Hagerstown and Washington County hadn’t already spent months making it extraordinarily difficult for residents to find out what they’ve been doing with this developer.

How We Got Here: Six Years of Data Center Recruitment, Secret Meetings, and Convenient Timing

Here’s what residents have had to piece together through public records requests, government documents, campaign finance disclosures, and archived websites:

• February 4, 2020: Washington County Business Development Director Jonathan Horowitz sent a letter to the Maryland Senate Budget and Taxation Committee supporting Senate Bill 397, legislation designed to attract data centers through tax exemptions.

• June 2024: The property at 12440 Burkholder Lane was advertised as “Ideal for Data Center.” A January 2025 listing subsequently described a proposed million-square-foot facility suitable for data centers and other industrial uses.

• May 2025: Washington County’s Department of Business and Economic Development included Diversified Capital’s $50 million Martin Farm project in its economic development presentation, projecting 300 jobs.

• August 25, 2025: Diversified Capital executive Moshe Rubin donated $500 to Commissioner Jeff Cline’s campaign.

• October 12, 2025: An archived Diversified Capital profile described the company’s portfolio as including a “data center development project in Washington County, Maryland.” Diversified Capital was publicly identifying its project as a data center months before the county announced its moratorium.

• December 9, 2025: Washington County Commissioners met privately with Diversified Capital’s project team under an NDA. Participants included Rubin, former state senator Chris Shank, former lieutenant governor Boyd Rutherford, engineer Connor McManus, and Sage Policy Group’s Zack Fritz. County minutes acknowledged that public discussion would violate the NDA. That same day, Hagerstown’s Mayor and City Council held their own closed executive session to consider a business or industrial development proposal. The city has not publicly identified the project discussed.

• January 16, 2026: Washington County sent a letter supporting another tax exemption, this time for Mount Aetna Technology Park.

• February 2, 2026: Horowitz was announced as a member of the Data Center Alliance of Maryland Steering Committee, alongside representatives from Amazon, BGE, Constellation Energy, and other industry interests.

• February 3, 2026: Commissioners voted 4–0 to ratify their support for the Mount Aetna tax exemption.

• May 21, 2026: Commissioners approved a no-bid consulting contract with Greg Murray of GDMS LLC by a 3–2 vote, with Commissioner John Barr casting the deciding vote. Mayor Bill McIntire attended the meeting. Murray subsequently billed taxpayers for meeting with a Hagerstown representative and reviewing engineering materials that included documents from Black & Veatch, the firm working on Hagerstown’s water and wastewater planning.

• June 12, 2026: Cline returned Rubin’s $500 campaign contribution, nearly ten months after receiving it and six months after the confidential presentation.

• June 16, 2026: Washington County quietly posted its draft data center moratorium.

• June 30, 2026: Commissioners adopted their dog-and-pony-show moratorium. That same day, the owners of the Martin Farm property filed for annexation into Hagerstown, where the moratorium does not apply.

• August 25, 2026: Hagerstown introduced and approved Annexation Resolution A-2026-2 involving Burkholder Lane Acquisitions LLC and McDade Road Acquisitions LLC.

• September 2, 2026: We exposed the commissioners’ NDA meeting and its connection to Diversified Capital’s Martin Farm data center development.

• September 30, 2026: Washington County established criteria for data center development, after years of industry recruitment and months of undisclosed discussions with developers.

• October 8, 2026: We reported on a quietly held county data center workshop where FirstEnergy provided information about Diversified Capital’s plans.

• October 14, 2026: We met with Mayor McIntire and asked why Hagerstown refused to release its NDA records involving Diversified Capital. He told us the city’s legal department handled those decisions and that he didn’t know why its attorneys had withheld the records. But Communications Director Wes Decker had already told us that he was the records custodian and made the final disclosure decision.

• October 20, 2026: Hagerstown is scheduled to consider another amendment to the annexation plan. The agenda doesn’t identify Diversified Capital or mention the data center.

Good Luck Figuring Out What’s Actually on the Agenda

Unless residents already know that “Burkholder-McDade” refers to Diversified Capital’s property, they have little reason to pay attention to Tuesday’s discussion. Searching the agenda for “Diversified Capital” or “data center” produces nothing.

The supporting documents aren’t much better. One document labeled “Required Motion” includes sections for the action required, discussion, financial impact, recommendation, motion, and action dates. Every section is blank.

A separate memorandum explains that Hagerstown wants to correct the annexation plan adopted August 25 because the properties were incorrectly identified as being outside Maryland’s Priority Funding Area. That designation can affect eligibility for certain state infrastructure investments, but the city doesn’t explain whether this correction has any financial implications.

The memorandum also says city attorneys advised adopting the amended annexation plan before conducting the required public hearing. That isn’t final approval of the annexation, but it’s another reason residents should be paying attention to what officials are approving.

Two Governments, Two Closed Meetings, and an NDA Hagerstown Won’t Release

Washington County provided us with a redacted NDA involving Diversified Capital through a Maryland Public Information Act request. The county’s December 9 meeting minutes also identify the people who attended the confidential development presentation.

Hagerstown, meanwhile, refuses to release its NDA records concerning the same developer. And on the very day county commissioners met privately with Diversified Capital’s team, Hagerstown’s Mayor and City Council held their own closed session to consider a business or industrial development proposal.

We haven’t established whether both governments discussed Diversified Capital that day. But the coincidence is worth investigating, particularly when Hagerstown won’t release the records that could help answer questions about its dealings with the company.

Then there’s Mayor McIntire’s explanation for the city’s refusal. When we asked him about it on October 14, he said the city’s attorneys handled those decisions and that he didn’t know why they withheld the documents.

Except Wes Decker, Hagerstown’s own Director of Communications, had already told us that he made the final decision. The mayor’s explanation was inconsistent with what his own administration had told us just two weeks earlier. Whether McIntire was uninformed or attempting to deflect responsibility, neither explanation inspires much confidence.

And as we documented in our October 16 investigation, Hagerstown’s engineering consultant proposed helping both governments evaluate data center locations and infrastructure requirements. Washington County’s consultant subsequently reviewed engineering documents and met with a Hagerstown representative.

Both governments have plenty of explaining to do about their dealings with Diversified Capital. Instead, residents are still fighting to obtain records, identify who made decisions, and figure out what their elected officials are discussing behind closed doors.

Now Hagerstown is taking another step in the annexation process, and the developer’s name isn’t even on the agenda.

October 27 Is the Meeting Everyone Needs to Attend

Tuesday’s October 20 work session matters, but October 27 is the much more important date. That’s when Hagerstown is scheduled to hold the public hearing on the Burkholder-McDade annexation. This is the opportunity for residents to show up, speak out, and make it clear that they are paying attention to what city officials are doing with Diversified Capital’s property.

After years of data center recruitment, confidential meetings, NDAs, and a county moratorium that conveniently doesn’t apply within Hagerstown, there is absolutely no reason residents should sit this one out. We need everyone who can possibly attend to be there on October 27, whether you live in Hagerstown or elsewhere in Washington County. Decisions about a development of this scale can affect far more people than those living within city limits, and officials need to hear from the community before the annexation proceeds any further.

The October 20 work session begins at 4 p.m. at City Hall, 1 East Franklin Street. Also, mark October 27 on your calendar now. If you can attend only one meeting, make it that one.

Why We’re Covering This:

We recognize that data centers probably is not what you expected Hagerstown Rapid Response to be writing about. That’s not what we expected to be writing about either. But while researching the ICE detention center, we stumbled onto another story: a data center project that had been moving behind the scenes while our county commissioners knew about it, met with the developer, were involved in discussions surrounding it, and even signed NDAs about the project. We could not just ignore that. And as we began putting the pieces together, what disturbed us even more was seeing how taxpayer money, public infrastructure, tax breaks, and government decisions appeared to benefit current and former elected officials, their associates, friends, family members, and donors. Every time we take a closer look at another corner of Washington County government, we seem to uncover more questions about secrecy, conflicts, favoritism, and what increasingly looks like grift and pay-to-play.

What we have published so far is only the tip of the iceberg. We have uncovered far more than we have had time to write about yet, and at this point the hardest part has been deciding where to even start. There is much more coming very soon. We love this community and this state, and we cannot stay quiet and simply hope someone else comes along and does the work. Because one thing has become painfully clear: we cannot count on our hometown newspaper to do it for us. So when we find something the public deserves to know, we feel a responsibility to raise the alarm.