In his May 7, 2025 business development presentation, Washington County Business Development Director Jonathan Horowitz boasted that Diversified Capital’s Martin Farm development would bring $50 million in investment and 300 jobs. The presentation discussed the million-square-foot project but did not identify a tenant, explain who would employ those 300 people, or say when the jobs would materialize. Meanwhile, the property was being marketed as “Ideal for Data Center.“ Apparently, the county knew enough to advertise the investment and jobs, but residents were left to figure out what might actually be built there.
What makes this particularly hard to swallow is that Horowitz’s own contact information appeared in marketing materials for the property, including his office and cell numbers, as we documented in our original investigation. The Maryland property listing identifies him as the Washington County business development contact. This was the same official giving the presentation about the project’s economic benefits. Are we really supposed to believe the property’s data center marketing escaped the attention of the person prospective developers were being told to call?
The county had already been reviewing Diversified Capital’s plans for two years. Its June 5, 2023 Planning Commission minutes describe a proposed million-square-foot warehouse at 12440 Burkholder Lane and plans to extend water and sewer service to the site. The March 2023 concept plan identifies the City of Hagerstown as the utility provider. Even the industrial zoning was established long before that: county records from 2015 identify the property as Planned Industrial.
On August 25, 2025, Moshe Rubin, CFO of Diversified Capital, contributed $500 to Commissioner Jeff Cline’s campaign. Chris Shank contributed $250 that same day. By October, Diversified Capital was publicly promoting its data center development project in Washington County, Maryland. Then, on December 9, 2025, Rubin and Shank were together again, this time as members of the “Project Team” in a closed-door county meeting covered by an NDA. Horowitz, all five commissioners, County Administrator Michelle Gordon, and county attorneys were listed among the closed-session attendees, along with former Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford, Dynamic Engineering’s Connor McManus, and Sage Policy Group’s Zack Fritz. The county said a public discussion of the business presentation would violate the NDA. Residents still have not been told exactly what was presented.
Former state Senator Chris Shank’s involvement deserves considerably more attention.
Chris Shank is a former lobbyist and is currently “advising clients in workforce development, technology, and economic development.” And Shank increasingly appears to be working with Rubin to help make the Burkholder Lane data center a reality. Two people contributing to Commissioner Jeff Cline’s Campaign on the same day could ordinarily be a coincidence. But those same two people later appearing before the county as members of a confidential development “Project Team” in which the county officials all had to sign a nondisclosure agreement, gives us a reason to ask more questions. Who was and still is paying Shank, what was he hired to do, and which officials had he spoken with about Diversified Capital’s plans?
Then, on June 12, 2026, nearly ten months after accepting the money, Commissioner Jeff Cline returned both contributions on the same day. His campaign gave the same explanation for Rubin’s $500 and Shank’s $250: “Candidate decided to decline contribution.” Cline had kept their money through the December meeting and for roughly six months afterward. As we previously reported, the refunds came just six days before we published the county’s proposed data center moratorium. What changed? Why did both donations suddenly become unwelcome just as the county was preparing its dog-and-pony-show moratorium and acting as though data centers were something it needed time to learn about? Cline owes residents an explanation beyond a campaign filing saying he changed his mind.
Horowitz, meanwhile, had already secured a seat at another data center table. On February 2, 2026, less than two months after the confidential meeting, the Maryland Tech Council announced him as a member of the Data Center Alliance of Maryland Steering Committee. The alliance is an industry initiative, not a state government commission, and its work includes advancing data center development and shaping public policy. Horowitz joined representatives from Amazon, Rowan Digital Infrastructure, Constellation Energy, BGE, and Turner Construction. He apparently knew enough to help guide a statewide data center effort. We would like him to share what he knew about the development his own department was promoting in Washington County.
And we still want to know where those 300 jobs came from. Horowitz’s presentation also advertised up to 15 years of property tax abatement, with the highest tier requiring at least 200 full-time jobs, $20 million in investment, and wages for 80% of employees at twice Maryland’s minimum wage. Martin Farm’s advertised numbers exceeded the first two thresholds, although that does not establish that the project qualified for or received an abatement. Were those estimates used to discuss tax breaks? Was there an actual employer behind them? An employment projection for a warehouse cannot simply be recycled into a data center pitch because the number looks good.
We are supposed to believe county officials somehow missed what residents found in public listings, even though their own business development director was named in the property’s marketing and later sat in a confidential meeting with the developer. The county had years to review the project, discuss utility extensions, and ask what would actually be built. Horowitz should release the basis for the $50 million and 300-job claims, and the commissioners should explain when they learned about Diversified Capital’s data center plans. If they want us to believe they were unaware, they need to explain how they managed to be involved in so much of this development effort while knowing so little about it.
Crooked all the way!