George Lucas breaks ground on Presidio production campus project

By ANGELA WATERCUTTER
Associated Press Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Star Wars creator George Lucas broke ground Saturday for a $300 million special effects campus that he hopes will help San Francisco rival Hollywood as a producer of movie magic.

``San Francisco's always had a quality of filmmaking that most people haven't been able to recognize, we always get shoved under the title 'Hollywood,''' Lucas said. ``I think this will begin to put a steak in the ground for San Francisco as a filmmaking community, as a creator of world cinema.''

The groundbreaking marks a new beginning for the Presidio, a former Army base and now a national park with breathtaking views of the city's famous Golden Gate Bridge. The project is designed to allow the park to break even financially and create a space for the digital arts project of Lucasfilm Ltd.

``It's a great honor to be here in the park and hopefully in the years to come we will be worthy of this great gift that has been awarded to us,'' Lucas said at the ceremony, also attended by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who represents the area in Congress, and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.

Lucas, who grew up in Modesto, Calif., said he thinks the architects have designed a facility that fits well into the national park.

Lucasfilm and Letterman Digital Arts Ltd., as the new venture is called, won the right to develop the prized parcel two years ago. Lucasfilm's headquarters Skywalker Ranch is located across the Golden Gate Bridge from the Presidio in Marin County.

The new plans include tweaks to allow for more open space and cleaner sight lines to area landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge and Palace of Fine Arts. The four buildings frame a ``park within a park'' that includes a small lagoon.

The 850,000-square-foot project will eventually house 2,500 workers. It will occupy the former site of the Letterman Army Hospital, which was demolished.

Officials with Presidio Trust, which manages most of the 700 buildings on the 490-acre park, say the cost of the property is $5.8 million in annual rent for a 50-year lease about 12 percent of what the Presidio Trust needs each year to be economically self-sufficient. Congress has mandated that the park must break even by 2013.

``We're really very very grateful to the commitment that George Lucas has made ... to help us honor our commitment to make the Presidio self-sufficient as a model to the rest of the country in terms of how we value this park,'' said Pelosi, who was in Congress when it created the Presidio Trust in 1996.

The project is scheduled to be completed in 2005, Lucasfilm officials said. Tenants will include several companies owned by Lucas, including special effects pioneer Industrial Light & Magic.

Critics of the plan say the lease to Lucasfilm is unnecessary. Members of the Telegraph Hill Dwellers, a San Francisco neighborhood organization of about 850 members, released a statement Saturday saying the level of commercial development envisioned by the Presidio Trust is not needed for the national park to break even.

^ =

On the Net:

Presidio: http://www.nps.gov/prsf/index.htm

Presidio Trust: http://www.presidiotrust.gov/

Lucasfilm: http://www.lucasfilm.com/

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)