Ryan Stuart Development is working on plans for a data center project to be located northwest of Summit Point village. The company purchased the 235 acre property on April 9, 2026 (highlighted on the map image above).
Kenny Boddye, Director of Government Affairs for the Reston-based company, gave a brief overview of the company’s intentions for the project to the Charles Town Utility Board during its April 29 meeting. Boddye said that the company is in the early stages of marketing the site to potential data center operators and does not yet have a specific end-user identified. He was able to provide only a ballpark estimate of the facility’s water needs — between 100,000 and 130,000 gallons per day.
Boddye asked the utility to clarify its ability to provide water service to the location. During the brief discussion, the utility board members emphasized CTUB’s interest in providing water service and also raised the possibility of constructing a “purple line” that would deliver processed water from CTUB’s wastewater treatment plant, which Boddye characterized as a win-win for both parties.
Boddye emphasized that Ryan Stuart Development expected to pay for any new infrastructure required for the project, in line with CTUB’s goal of not burdening ratepayers with the costs of system expansion.
Following the discussion with Boddye, CTUB voted to re-advertise its open RFP (request for proposal) for a preliminary engineering study that will evaluate the options and costs of providing water and sewer service to the Summit Point area. Following the meeting, CTUB Chairman Brent Manuel noted that he was glad to see that the company was quick to share its plans with CTUB so that the utility’s planning for water and sewer service in this area could proceed with accurate information.
Attracted To Power
In a follow-up call with The Observer, Boddye confirmed that access to power was the most important factor in his company’s interest in this site. Dado Slezak of QTS, the developer of a data center project in Kearneysville, made a similar observation about power access during a recent forum hosted by Shepherd University Stubblefield Institute and The Observer.
In that context, the area to the west of Summit Point appears to be very attractive for data center projects. First Energy operates a 138 kilovolt line that runs through this area (the smaller “H” tower to the right in the image above). First Energy is planning to add a new 500 kilovolt line in the same right-0f-way as the existing 138 kilovolt line. A plan to add a 765 kilovolt line parallel to the existing lines has also been approved by PJM (the regional electric grid operator).
The existing 500 kilovolt line (the larger lattice tower to the left in the image above) is owned by Dominion Energy and connects the Mount Storm generating facility with customers in Virginia. Dominion is not licensed to deliver power in West Virginia, so it is unlikely that any data center projects in Jefferson County could tap into that line.
Find more of The Observer’s coverage of data centers projects in West Virginia at ObserverWV.com.
Published 2026 Apr 30 in the Observer Weekly.
By Steve Pearson