Manchester Financial Weighs a 400 MW Data Center on San Diego’s 70-Acre NAVWAR Site as City Leaders Push a Moratorium

Data Centers Grid Connection & Reliability News Policy & Markets State & Local Regulation
Marin Holt
October 22, 2026
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9 minutes read

Data center under study: 400 MW
NAVWAR site: 70.3 acres
Original plan: 8,900 residential units
Navy environmental review due: 2027

Manchester Financial Group is exploring a 400 MW data center as one option for redeveloping the 70.3-acre Naval Base Point Loma Old Town Campus in San Diego. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported the idea on October 22, 2026. The site houses the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command, known as NAVWAR. Company president Ted Eldredge told the paper the data center is one of several uses under study. The others include a medical center, a university campus and defense contractors. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera planned to join a rally the same day. There they intended to announce coordinated action against large data centers, including a proposed temporary moratorium.

Voice of San Diego first reported the idea on October 15 after it obtained emails. One of them, sent late last year by Eldredge to San Diego Community Power, asked about the cost to operate a 400-megawatt data center. The outlet wrote that a facility of that size could be the largest data center in California. For comparison, it cited a 330-megawatt project proposed in Imperial County. The Union-Tribune reports that project is on hold after an August 31 court ruling that requires an environmental impact report.

Under the arrangement still under negotiation with the Navy, Manchester would build the service a new facility on part of the land. In exchange it would get a 99-year lease to develop roughly 60 acres privately. The plan as first conceived contemplated 8,900 residential units, two hotels totaling 480 rooms and 281,300 square feet of retail. It also contemplated 2.8 million square feet of commercial space. Eldredge told the Union-Tribune that a weakened office market pushed the firm to look for other uses. Together those uses could occupy more than 2 million square feet. A company representative told Voice of San Diego that any data center would sit on a portion of the smaller 22-acre parcel, Old Town Campus 2. Housing would go on the 47-acre parcel.

Elo-Rivera, who sits on the San Diego Community Power board, asked San Diego Gas and Electric whether the grid has enough capacity to add 400 megawatts of continuous demand. The utility told Voice of San Diego it will update the grid to meet demand wherever it comes from. Eldredge said his inquiries focused on electricity cost. He wants a rate from Community Power plus the distribution cost from the utility, so he could quote a cost per megawatt to a prospective user. “We’re not married to that megawattage,” he told the Union-Tribune. He added that he has nothing until he has an interested user, and he does not have one. The Community Power board had a draft on its October 22 agenda to set guidelines for integrating added load from prospective data centers.

Rep. Scott Peters, whose district includes NAVWAR, spoke at an October 16 press conference. He said a data center “belongs in a more remote, industrial place” and called for housing and a “mini downtown” instead. Councilmember Marni von Wilpert said briefings from Manchester to her office never mentioned a data center. KPBS reported that the site needs no city permits because the federal government owns it. The lease-for-construction structure also requires no appropriation from Congress. The Navy expects to release an updated environmental impact statement in 2027.

Why It Matters

The moratorium push targets a parcel the city does not control. The land is federal and the Navy decides the lease. A San Diego ordinance would reach data centers on private land in the city. It would not by itself bind the NAVWAR campus. The hold local officials have is political, and it runs through the Navy environmental review, which is still a year away.

The electricity question is the one that reaches ratepayers. The utility answer, that it builds the grid to meet whatever demand arrives, says nothing about who pays for the upgrades a 400 MW load would require. San Diego customers already pay among the highest rates per kilowatt-hour in the country, the Union-Tribune notes. California regulators have so far handled large data-center loads one contract at a time, as with the Pacific Gas and Electric agreement for a Google data center in San Jose. By his own account, Eldredge has no tenant and no rate quote. The 400-megawatt data center is a planning question put to two utilities, not a committed load.

Critical Perspective

The 400 MW figure rests on one email and one developer phone interview. Eldredge himself says there is no tenant, no rate quote and no commitment to that size, so the number that set off a moratorium push is a cost inquiry, not a project. The political response is aimed at a parcel the city does not permit, because the land is federal and the Navy controls the lease. A city moratorium would bind private sites in San Diego while leaving NAVWAR to the Navy environmental review due in 2027. The grid question is unanswered on both sides. San Diego Gas and Electric says it will build to meet demand but has not said what 400 MW of upgrades would cost or who pays, and the Community Power agenda item is a draft guideline, not a tariff. None of the coverage names an interconnection request, a load study or a utility capacity figure for the Midway District. Until one appears, is the city regulating a data center or the rumor of one?