State Senator Pockets Huge Actual Property Fee From a $30M Information Middle Land Sale, Then Introduces Bill to Quick-Monitor Improvement

Weeks earlier than introducing a invoice to streamline information middle growth throughout Pennsylvania, State Sen. Greg Rothman’s actual property agency quietly collected a charge from the $30 million sale of land now internet hosting the state’s largest proposed information middle. Whether that sequence quantities to a battle of curiosity — or just an uncomfortable overlap — relies upon completely on who you ask and what normal you suppose elected officers must be held to.

The Deal, The Fee, The Bill

An actual property closing and a legislative push landed uncomfortably shut collectively on the calendar.

Here’s the documented sequence, based on Spotlight PA’s reporting:

• June 2025: The 500-plus-acre PennTerra tract in Middlesex Township, Cumberland County, sells for $30 million to builders behind PAX-1 — a three-campus, $15 billion information middle focusing on 1.35 gigawatts of capability. RSR Realtors receives a charge at closing.
• RSR is chaired by Rothman, who joined the agency in 1989. His father, Bill Rothman, based it.
• July 14, 2025: Rothman introduces Senate Bill 939, creating “Commonwealth Opportunity Zones” with expedited allowing and — initially — provisions blocking municipalities from imposing stricter zoning guidelines on information facilities than on different industries.
• PAX-1 developer Igal Feibush confirmed to Spotlight PA that RSR was paid “alongside several other brokers and consultants.” Neither get together disclosed the greenback quantity.

“This political figure who ostensibly represents us, who has been deaf to people’s complaints about Middlesex, and has very explicitly supported legislation that would disempower communities further, has a financial stake, best we understand it — at least at some point — in the health of this project.” — John Werner, Stewards of Cumberland County organizer, per Spotlight PA

Rothman maintains the charge compensated prior itemizing and advisory work for the land’s earlier proprietor — not the info middle transaction itself. “RSR has never been involved with the PAX-1 project,” he instructed Spotlight PA.

Pennsylvania regulation explicitly permits legislators to carry outdoors jobs. A 2024 Philadelphia Inquirer evaluation discovered greater than half of state House and Senate members do precisely that. Rothman’s voting report additionally isn’t uniformly pro-industry: he just lately voted to remove a significant information middle gross sales tax exemption.

The actual rigidity right here isn’t legality. Feibush and different PAX-1-linked figures donated to Rothman’s campaigns — contributions Feibush characterised as reflections of “personal friendships,” not affect. Meanwhile, SB 939’s most aggressive provisions, together with the native zoning preemption language, have been later stripped by co-sponsor Sen. Tracy Pennycuick. The invoice hasn’t superior past committee.

“I will always work in the best interests of my constituents and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.” — Sen. Greg Rothman, written assertion to Spotlight PA

300 Residents, One Town Hall

Cumberland County’s pushback is bipartisan, organized, and displaying no indicators of quieting down.

The Stewards of Cumberland County drew roughly 300 folks to a June city corridor — a turnout that indicators this battle has moved properly previous social media complaints into sustained civic organizing. PAX-1 building is already underway, with blasting and web site work starting in spring and first-phase supply projected for Q2 2027. Republican state Rep. Thomas Kutz individually launched a video distancing himself from information middle backlash, signaling actual fractures inside the get together on this concern.

SB 939 sits idle in committee. PAX-1 breaks floor. And the query no one in Harrisburg appears wanting to reply stays sharp: when your agency earnings from land you’re concurrently making simpler to develop via laws, at what level does “perfectly legal” cease being ok?