Army Secretly Taking Over Civilian Hotels?

My gf got to know a local (not a chain) motel owner in California this summer who grew up in a town near hers, who co-owned the motel, a large one with tons of rooms not far from some of the devastating fires, with an old friend from the military. He told her the government tried to buy their motel a year or two ago. There could be many different reasons for this of course but this is one of the possibilities.