An entity related to "Star Wars" creator George Lucas has bought real estate in Los Angeles, California, that may be connected to the filmmaker's planned Lucas Museum of Narrative Art scheduled to open next year.
Lanamla LLC, an organization connected to an executive with the nonprofit Hobson Lucas Family Foundation, bought a 4-acre industrial site in a deal last month totaling $45.8 million, according to public records. The property at 1639 N. Main St. holds three industrial buildings that could be used for storage for archives related to the museum.
The treasurer of Lanamla — a name that bears resemblance to the museum's acronym, LMNA — is Michael Rider, according to state records. Rider is the treasurer of Hobson Lucas Family Foundation, also known as the George Lucas Family Foundation, the philanthropic entity for the filmmaker and his wife, Ariel Investments co-CEO Mellody Hobson.
The industrial site was once eyed for redevelopment into 150,000 square feet of creative office and retail space before the seller — an entity related to Redcar, a developer based in Santa Monica, California — sold the properties.
The seller declined to comment on the sale, and a representative for Lucas didn't respond to a request to comment from CoStar News.
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is a $1 billion project that broke ground in 2018 at Exposition Park near the University of Southern California, and roughly seven miles from the recently sold industrial property. The 11-acre museum campus is planned to feature art, sculptures, murals and more when it opens in 2025.
Lucas has been scouting real estate space around greater Los Angeles in recent years to store materials from the museum, people familiar with the requirement told CoStar News.
Museums often need extra storage for their archives; for example, the Autry Museum of the American West, located in L.A.'s Griffith Park, keeps some of its archives at 210 S. Victory Blvd. in Burbank, according to CoStar data.
Lucas is no stranger to California real estate. The filmmaker owns thousands of acres of ranches in Northern California, including the Skywalker Ranch, and owns beachfront real estate elsewhere in the state. In 2019, he bought a 2-acre property in Carpinteria, California, for $28 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.