A California-based real estate firm is potentially looking to develop a data center project on land in San Diego previously occupied by the Navy’s cybersecurity and information systems division.

Local press, including Voice of San Diego, reports that Manchester Financial Group is working to secure potential investment for a potential 400MW data center project on a 70-acre plot at the site of the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWAR).

Full details of any potential data center development have not been shared.

Founded in 1970, the San Diego company specializes in hotel and commercial property development. Its M Commercial Properties division is focused on office space, biotech facilities, and research and development properties. This would be the firm’s first data center.

NAVWAR, based out of Naval Base Point Loma, is the Navy’s technical authority and acquisition command for C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance), business information technology, and space systems.

Formerly known as Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR), NAVWAR has been at Point Loma since 1997. Thousands of NAVWAR staff currently operate out of World War II-era aircraft hangars, and the Navy announced plans to redevelop NAVWAR headquarters (also known as the Navy Old Town Campus) in 2022.

The land is owned by the US government, but in 2024 the Navy selected Manchester and Edgemoor Infrastructure and Real Estate (an affiliate of Clark Construction) to redevelop and replace the old command center on a 99-year lease in exchange for providing new offices for NAVWAR. At the time, the Navy said the existing headquarters are “well beyond their useful life and negatively affect NAVWAR’s cyber warfare mission, security, and workforce safety.”

Manchester had previously pitched the site as potential apartments (including for military families), hotels, restaurants, and retail. A stadium, hospital, and university have also reportedly been considered. Any final design will reportedly be a mixed-use development with homes as well as retail.

“The potential plans for this site continue to be refined, and no final project has been approved,” a statement from Manchester Financial to the Voice of San Diego said. “Our first priority is delivering modern facilities for NAVWAR, and we remain committed to working with the Navy and other key stakeholders throughout this process.”

Manchester was awarded a similar contract to redevelop the 12-acre Navy Broadway Complex in 2006.

Local officials have hit out at the idea of a data center on the site, noting a lack of information and transparency around the proposals, and suggesting that housing would be a better use.

“It should be a new community, a new mini downtown if you will, right next to the highway with access to transportation, where we can have housing,” Rep. Scott Peters said recently. “A data center isn’t neighborhood-serving. It’s not really something that belongs here. It belongs in a more remote, industrial place.”

“They showed me an entire portfolio of housing and park space and commercial real estate and job creation. That is what they promised the people of this community,” Councilmember Marni von Wilpert told Fox. “I found out in a newspaper article that they may be changing their mind.”

Though separate from Manchester Financial’s agreement, the US Government has been keen to open up federal-owned land for potential data center development. It has identified several Department of Energy and Department of Defense (aka Department of War) sites as potential options. Brookfield and SoftBank are set to develop two large projects on DOE-owned land.