George Lucas

San Rafael City Manager said the city offered the filmmaker 20 acres behind Home Depot looking out to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, "but George Lucas had a vision, and the Presidio is a unique site in all of the United States." "It was his visionary decision, rather than a business or financial decision," to relocate to the national park, the City Manager said. "Their move, in my opinion, wouldn't have a negative affect on our market today, or in 2004,". "I think that it's such a special property, in a special location, that there's tremendous demand by various companies of all sorts to be in that area." the City Manager  agreed . He said San Rafael wouldn't be significantly affected, and commercial real estate brokers said the vacated space would be snatched up quickly. Two years later, as the economy spirals downward after the tech bust and terrorist attacks, some are not so sure. There is concern about the commercial real estate market, which currently has a vacancy rate of 21 percent with more than 1.6 million square feet of open office space, according to a report from Orion Partners Ltd. in San Rafael.