Lucas museum may land on Treasure Island after Chicago bid fails

“Star Wars” creator George Lucas is taking Mayor Ed Lee up on his offer to reconsider San Francisco as the location for his science fiction museum, which he may put on Treasure Island, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

“I never gave up on the idea,” Lee told the paper. “We have a chance to bring it back, and I want to be open and positive about it.”

Efforts by the city of Chicago to keep George Lucas’s proposed museum despite a fraught planning process that has included a battle in federal court over its waterfront location have failed, with museum planners now saying they will seek another location.

Lucas originally wanted to place his proposed Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in the Presidio in San Francisco. When that plan fell apart, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee offered a waterfront site that Lucas rejected. So the billionaire “Star Wars” creator took the $700 million cultural museum to Chicago, his wife’s hometown.

But now that’s dead, leaving multiple cities, including S.F., Oakland and even Los Angeles trying their best to lure the institution to the West Coast. The San Francisco plan appears to have the most details, with the Chronicle reporting Lucas museum designers have already met with Treasure Island’s developers, Wilson Meany and Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN), to hash out a design totally different that the original “spaceship” proposal.

“The companies have already completed the city’s required environmental review process and secured entitlements on a separate project to build 8,000 homes, 400,000 square feet of commercial space and two hotels,” the paper reports, adding that the city’s approvals already allow the building of a museum on Treasure Island.