CHICAGO — “Star Wars” creator George Lucas announced Friday that he has abandoned plans to build his art museum in Chicago, blaming delays over a lawsuit from a parks group opposed to any development along the city’s prized lakefront.
The filmmaker said in a statement he would take his Lucas Museum of Narrative Art to California, but he did not name a specific location. He blamed Chicago’s Friends of the Parks group for suing to stop construction on what is currently a parking lot for Soldier Field.
“No one benefits from continuing their seemingly unending litigation to protect a parking lot,” Lucas said. Friends of the Parks did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel and members of the city’s cultural and business spheres had backed the director’s plans to bring the museum to the lakefront site already home to a natural history museum, planetarium and aquarium. But it set off a bitter fight with Friends of the Parks, which argued the museum plans violated laws restricting development along Lake Michigan.
Emanuel released a statement Friday, calling it a “missed opportunity” that would cost the city millions of dollars in economic investment, thousands of jobs and educational opportunities for the city’s youth.
“Unfortunately, time has run out and the moment we’ve consistently warned about has arrived – Chicago’s loss will be another city’s gain,” Emanuel said.
