SAN FRANCISCO — Filmmaker George Lucas won the right Monday to build a large-scale commercial development in the Presidio, a storied former Army base turned national park and one of this city's most coveted pieces of real estate.
After months of intensive lobbying, Lucasfilm's Letterman Digital Arts Ltd. beat out a combined residential and office complex that would have included an Internet-based technology company. The winner will redevelop the site where the abandoned Letterman Military Hospital stands.
In making its announcement Monday, the Presidio Trust stressed that its selection will become final only after a lease is successfully negotiated with Lucasfilm and the necessary environmental impact statement is complete--sometime in September or October.
The Lucas organization "meets several of our goals," said Jim Meadows, executive director of the Presidio Trust. "We are looking for a single user that would have outreach in the areas of scientific research and education and 21st century, cutting-edge technology."
The Presidio--1,480 acres next to the Golden Gate Bridge--became one of the hottest pieces of commercial real estate in the country after the U.S. military handed it over to the National Park Service in 1994 and Congress deemed that it must become financially self-sustaining by 2013.
The national historic landmark--which has more than 200 years of military history and a wealth of historic buildings, archeological sites and stunning views of San Francisco Bay--has attracted the attention of hundreds of would-be developers.
Lucas wants to build a 900,000-square-foot, state-of-the art digital movie-making center on 23 acres where the abandoned 10-story, glass and concrete hospital now stands. The hospital will be razed.
He plans to bring together his special effects, sound and software subsidiary companies that now are scattered across the Marin County town of San Rafael. Lucas' plan calls for 15 acres to be devoted to open space, including a great lawn with a lagoon, promenades and a public cafe.
Gordon Radley, president of Lucasfilm and Letterman Digital Arts, said he was gratified by the Presidio Trust's decision, which he characterized as having nothing to do with his reclusive boss' star power.
"This isn't about 'Star Wars' at all," Radley said. "This is about bringing people--artists, composers, computer scientists, designers, craftspeople--to help form a community . . . that will be as world renowned for its great ideas as it would be for the beauty of its setting."
