Lucas decision soon on Treasure Island
The Bay Area could soon learn whether billionaire filmmaker George Lucas will try — again — to build a high-profile museum on a prime spot on San Francisco Bay.
The board of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is likely to meet by the end of this week to vote on whether to pursue development plans on Treasure Island, across from the Ferry Building in San Francisco, or in Los Angeles at Exposition Park near the University of Southern California.
San Francisco’s bid for the museum includes an expectation that Lucas would pay roughly $26 million for the 4-acre site, an amount that city officials say is above market value. Los Angeles proposes to lease its 7-acre site to Lucas for a nominal $20 a year.
Either amount is part of a budget estimated at $1.1 billion, with $700 million for construction and $400 million for an
endowment. All of this would be paid for by Lucas, a Marin resident who sold his film empire to Disney in 2012 for $4 billion.
Whatever the outcome, the vote would be the latest chapter in a saga with almost as many episodes as Lucas’ “Star Wars” series, including an ill-fated quest to build the museum at Crissy Field in the Presidio.
The outcome will follow a lobbying campaign during which San Francisco and Los Angeles each looked for any advantage they could press.
“This museum is incredibly important to the Bay Area,” Mayor Ed Lee said Friday, emphasizing that the city’s most recent presentation included a letter signed by the mayors of Richmond, Oakland, Berkeley and San Jose.
Lee argued that a shoreline perch as part of the larger Treasure Island redevelopment would help showcase Lucas’ museum. The cultural center would include an emphasis on educational programs as well as the expansive range of artwork, much of it related to cinema, that Lucas has collected over 40 years.
“Treasure Island is all about the future,” Lee said, talking about how the planned community emphasizes alternatives to automobiles, including a new ferry terminal next to Lucas’ desired site. “Having the Lucas museum there would make the island that much more innovative.”
By contrast, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti stressed the central location of Exposition Park, where the Lucas museum would replace a pair of parking lots near such attractions as the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and the California African American Museum.
“We’ve got an incredible site that’s the center of the universe, at the crossroads of our masstransit system, educational institutions, entertainment and arts and sports,” Garcetti said Friday. “It’s not on an island in the bay.”
The unusual competition — each city courting Lucas with visions of an obstacle-free path to opening day — follows failed efforts by the filmmaker not only at Crissy Field but in Chicago.
The local bid began in 2010 when Lucas approached the Presidio Trust, which manages the former Army post at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge for the National Park Service. He had endorsements from an array of politicians, Lee included, but in 2014 the trust’s board of directors decided unanimously that his proposal was ill-suited for the picturesque site.
A scorned Lucas then set his sights on Chicago, which had made overtures to him as the Presidio bid stalled. He also has a home there with his wife, Chicago native Mellody Hobson.
Despite approvals by Chicago commissions, his chosen location alongside Lake Michigan ran into legal challenges from park advocates. In June 2016, Lucas said in a statement that the “unending litigation” meant that he would again try to build in California instead.
According to Lee, he stayed in touch with Lucas during the Chicago installment of what now is a trilogy.
“It was a long shot, but I quietly kept talking to George,” Lee said. “I told him that I was sorry about what had happened at the Presidio, but if we had another chance, with land we control, we’d do something demonstrably different” in terms of making the museum happen.
The one public move by the Lucas side came in October, when conceptual designs by Chinese architect Ma Yansong were released for both Treasure Island and Exposition Park. San Francisco and Los Angeles, meanwhile, have worked to show that an approvals process will be smooth if they get the nod.
In San Francisco, this included a unanimous resolution of support in November from the Board of Supervisors. Treasure Island’s developers also say that they’re happy to make room for the Lucas museum near the entrance to the island.
“Our plan all along has been to create a whole new part of San Francisco, emphasis on the word ‘whole,’ ” said Chris Meany, who has been part of the island’s development team since 2005. “The idea that there would be culture here has been woven into the project from the start, though not perhaps in this exact form.”
A potential obstacle is the Treasure Island site would require an OK from the California State Lands Commission, which has regulatory control over much of the island. However, the commission’s staff has indicated that making room for a museum shouldn’t be a problem, although the final decision must be approved by the actual commission.
In Los Angeles, Garcetti said procedural hurdles are nonexistent.
“We’ve done all the logistical work we need to do,” he said. “There might be some greater challenges up north.”
Not that Garcetti — a rumored candidate for governor in 2018 — wants to throw stones at San Francisco.
“We’ve got two stellar cities and two stellar sites,” he said Friday. “We’re humbled to be in the race, and I’m 100 percent confident that George and Mellody will build their museum in California.”