After the United States banned a Chinese-controlled firm from owning a Wyoming data center less than a mile from U.S. nuclear weapons, a battle is brewing over the property.

Last week, the White House prohibited MineOne Cloud Computing Investment I from owning the data center it completed construction of last year at 635 Logistics Drive in Cheyenne.

The site is within the Cheyenne-Laramie County Corporation for Economic Development’s North Range Business Park, a 620-acre development home to such companies as Microsoft and Walmart as well as the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Now the local economic development organization is considering reclaiming the site. Standing in its way is a Las Vegas firm that had an agreement with MineOne to acquire the data center property and one undeveloped land parcel in Cheyenne.

“There's a lot of moving parts over the next 90 to 120 days with the federal government, so, we’re waiting to see what their next steps are,” Betsey Hale, CEO of the Cheyenne-Laramie County economic group, told CoStar News.

The organization sold the 12-acre site to MineOne two years ago but with the right of first refusal for a resale of the land. Such arrangements are common, as a right of first refusal protects economic development groups in the event a buyer doesn’t complete plans as agreed upon. It can also prevent a sale to a third party within a certain period.

The White House, in its action, ordered MineOne to dismantle and remove all improvements on the site, including buildings and equipment. In addition, the company, which specializes in cryptocurrency mining operations, was ordered to sell the property within four months.

The Logistics Drive development is within a mile of Warren Air Force Base, which maintains a nuclear weapons storage and handling facility.

“The proximity of the foreign-owned real estate to a strategic missile base and key element of America’s nuclear triad, and the presence of specialized and foreign-sourced equipment potentially capable of facilitating surveillance and espionage activities, presents a national security risk to the United States,” the White House said in a statement.

MineOne was using the location for bitcoin mining, which is the process by which new bitcoins are created and transactions are verified.

Representatives of MineOne did not respond to a request for comment from CoStar News.

In addition to cryptocurrency applications, the adoption of artificial intelligence is fueling a shift in data center investment strategies, according to a JLL outlook earlier this year. Almost all national regions have seen an uptick in the construction of data centers, the brokerage said, and capacity is becoming limited in major markets, sending developers on the hunt in places such as Wyoming.

National security concerns have led to a renewed focus on foreign investment in the U.S., including real estate. Florida enacted a law last year that bans certain foreign parties from buying land within 10 miles of critical infrastructure facilities or military institutions in the state. Alabama, Idaho, North Dakota, Ohio and Tennessee have similar laws.

The week before the White House announcement, MineOne had reached a deal for the two properties with Las Vegas-based CleanSpark, another bitcoin mining firm.

CleanSpark said it agreed to acquire the locations for $18.75 million in cash, and the deal was anticipated to close in 45 days.

But Hale told CoStar she plans to recommend to the Cheyenne-Laramie County economic group's board that it exercise the right of first refusal.

Other interested parties have reached out to MineOne about acquiring the site, Hale said. Another uncertainty about who will end up with the property is that the federal government has the right to approve the buyer, she said.

CleanSpark is trying to negotiate a settlement for control of the property.

“We are working toward a satisfactory closing of the sites in Wyoming,” a spokesperson told CoStar News in an email. “The agreement did not include equipment or existing infrastructure on the land and our intent has always been to build our own data centers.”

The deal would give CleanSpark its first two data center sites in Wyoming. The second facility is for unimproved land on Venture Drive in Cheyenne referred to as the Campstool site, also a development park controlled by the economic development group.

CleanSpark owns and operates eight different data centers across the South.

Daniel Thomas, a senior CoStar researcher, contributed to this report.