Lucasfilm Inc., owned by Star Wars creator George Lucas, is currently headquartered in San Rafael. The company is creating a new headquarters at the Presidio that will house 2,500 people. The project, named the Letterman Digital Arts Center after a historic army hospital, is expected to be complete in about three years.
Per an agreement with the Letterman Digital Arts Ltd., the property management and development subsidiary of Lucasfilm Ltd., the Presidio Trust will receive approximately six million dollars a year in rent for the property. It also will pay about $3 million a year in service charges.
Lucasfilm's current plans are for a 900,000-sf complex, with buildings that are 2- to 5-stories tall. But the project's opponents say that this design would block views from the Palace of Fine Arts and make the other buildings look small and out of place.
The park's previous buildings, which were a hospital and research center, totaled 807,000-sf. According to city officials, new design for the Lucasfilm complex will include shorter buildings and possibly less square footage. These changes will make it easier for people to see the Palace of Fine Arts.
However, the design changes will not be available for another month or so, so it is hard to tell if the new plan will satisfy the project's opponents. Lucasfilm representative made no comment on the plans for change.
"The Letterman Digital Arts Center is conceived as a campus, set within a great urban park, that is reflective of its surroundings, appropriately situated on its site, open to the public and respectful of its historic legacy," says Gordon Radley, President, Letterman Digital Arts Ltd. "The proposed development is consistent with the Presidio's Master Plan requirements for the Letterman Hospital site.
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