By October 2025, Diversified Capital was publicly advertising that it was developing a data center in Washington County, Maryland. Its land had already been marketed as suitable for data centers, its Martin Farm development had appeared in county planning records, and Washington County was promoting the project with an estimate of 300 jobs. We find it difficult to believe the commissioners did not know about the company’s data center plans roughly a year ago. If they somehow missed all of that, they should explain how the public managed to discover what apparently escaped the people running the county.
On August 25, 2025, Diversified Capital executive Moshe Rubin donated $500 to Commissioner Jeff Cline’s campaign. Less than two months later, an October 12 archived version of Diversified Capital’s Maryland Tech Council profile described its portfolio as including a “data center development project in Washington County, Maryland.” That archive establishes that the description was public by October 12. The company could have been advertising it earlier.
Less than two months after that, on December 9, 2025, the commissioners met privately with the Diversified Capital project team under an NDA. The room included Rubin, former state senator Chris Shank, former lieutenant governor Boyd Rutherford, engineer Connor McManus, and Sage Policy Group’s Zack Fritz. McManus’s firm has data center experience; Sage had been producing studies promoting the industry. The county’s own minutes explain that public discussion would violate the NDA. Residents were excluded while officials received the presentation.
The county still has not publicly identified exactly what that team pitched. But a developer publicly advertising a Washington County data center project then appearing before every commissioner with that particular team deserves considerably more explanation than “we haven’t approved a data center.”
They Had Been Recruiting This Industry for Years
Washington County’s involvement goes back well before Rubin’s donation. In 2020, Jonathan Horowitz submitted the county’s support for SB 397, legislation offering tax incentives specifically to attract data centers. The county was helping make Maryland more attractive to the industry years before officials began presenting themselves as people still learning what data centers might mean for residents.
On June 5, 2023, Diversified Capital appeared in Washington County Planning Commission records concerning the Martin property. By June 27, 2024, a listing for 12440 Burkholder Lane advertised it as “Ideal for Data Center”. The marketing offered several possible uses, including cold storage, automated warehousing, and distribution. Data centers were already part of the sales pitch.
The county’s involvement also extended beyond supporting tax incentives. We have found economic development materials promoting local industrial property for data center development and directing prospective developers to Horowitz. A state property listing for the Martin property identifies Washington County’s business development department and gives Horowitz’s office and cell numbers. County government was making itself available to help sell the property.
Private Meetings, More Tax Breaks, and an Industry Leadership Role
The recruitment continued into 2026. On January 16, the county sent a letter supporting another tax exemption, this time for Mount Aetna Technology Park. On February 2, Horowitz was announced as a member of the Data Center Alliance of Maryland Steering Committee, alongside representatives from Amazon, BGE, Constellation Energy, Rowan Digital Infrastructure, Turner Construction, and others involved in the industry.
The very next day, February 3, the commissioners voted 4–0 to ratify their support for the Mount Aetna exemption. Data center brokers had already been asking about the property’s land, zoning, utilities, and power availability. The resulting legislation expressly includes “computer systems and equipment” among eligible equipment, while the property’s ORI zoning permits “Computer and data processing services.” Officials were helping recruit development at another site with known data center interest while their business development director helped guide a statewide organization advancing the industry.
Then Came the Moratorium Performance
On June 12, 2026, Cline returned Rubin’s $500 donation, almost ten months after receiving it and approximately six months after the confidential presentation. Four days later, on June 16, the county quietly posted its draft data center moratorium. Why did the contribution suddenly become unacceptable at that particular moment?
On June 30, the commissioners adopted their dog-and-pony-show moratorium. That same day, the owners of the Martin Farm property sought annexation into Hagerstown. The annexation proposal covers roughly 172 acres, where the county’s moratorium would not apply. We find that timing difficult to dismiss as coincidence. It does not prove coordination, but it absolutely warrants releasing communications about the moratorium and annexation.
By September 30, Washington County set criteria for data center development. Residents were watching the rules take shape after years of recruitment and months of undisclosed developer discussions and being deceived.
The commissioners should explain when each of them first learned of Diversified Capital’s data center plans, what was presented on December 9, and whether officials discussed annexation as a way to move the property outside the moratorium. The broader record makes their supposed ignorance increasingly implausible. Either they knew far more than they told residents, or they failed to understand a development effort their own county government was helping promote. Neither explanation is much of a campaign platform.