Navy picks Manchester (again) for NAVWAR project
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The Naval Information Warfare Systems Comand's Old Town campus. Photo: Andrew Keatts/Axios
The U.S. Navy has again selected developer Doug Manchester to reimagine a major piece of San Diego real estate.
Driving the news: The Navy announced Tuesday its selection of the Manchester Financial Group and Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate to lead the redevelopment of its 70.3-acre campus, home to the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command, known as NAVWAR.
- The Navy did not share details of the redevelopment, but the project's environmental review, which the Navy paused while selecting a developer, considered up to 10,000 housing units, office and retail space and buildings up to 350 feet tall.
- The developer needs to provide replacement research and warehouse space for NAVWAR as part of the project.
Why it matters: City officials see the redevelopment as a complement to their efforts to build a transit-friendly, walkable community in the Midway District, where voters in 2022 waived development restrictions to spur renewal.
- The property became the Navy's first West Coast laboratory in 1940 and since 1997 has been a major hub for cyber technology. Navy officials have said the redevelopment is the largest real estate project in the branch's history.
Flashback: In 2019, the city of San Diego and San Diego Association of Governments told the Navy they would like to lead the redevelopment, turning the property into a grand central station for the regional transit system, with a connection to the airport.
- SANDAG later pivoted, focusing on the Civic Center as the basis of its grand central proposal.
- The city's revitalization plan for the Civic Center ended up not including that idea, and SANDAG is now eyeing a modest airport connection from Santa Fe Depot.
In 2006, the Navy gave Manchester a 99-year lease to rebuild 13.7 downtown acres into a $1.3 billion mixed-use project in exchange for building a new headquarters.
- Manchester built that headquarters, known as Navy Building One, then sold the remainder of his "Manchester Pacific Gateway" project to biotech developer IQHQ for $230 million in 2020, as the Union-Tribune reported.
- Edgemoor is a Virginia-based company with a local office that lists major projects in Long Beach and San Francisco, but not San Diego.
- Manchester also owned 49% of 101 Ash Street before selling the property to another company to facilitate a lease of the property to the city, which resulted in a years-long scandal.
- Former President Donald Trump picked Manchester as his ambassador to Bahamas, a selection that later became a scandal of its own.