“Star Wars” creator George Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, were among those who bought Citadel founder Ken Griffin's 66th-floor penthouse in Streeterville's Park Tower building last year for $11.2 million.
Lucas and Hobson plan to combine the penthouse with an existing full-floor condominium on the 65th floor of the same building (purchased in 2015 for $18.75 million) to create a 16,000-square-foot duplex penthouse, according to a building permit application recently filed with Chicago building officials. The combined condominium would cost $33.5 million to build, including construction costs and the purchase price for the two units, making it the most expensive completed condominium in Chicago's history.
The next most expensive Chicago apartment was the $20.56 million paid by Mexican billionaire Germán Larrea in 2022 for a four-bedroom, 10,000-square-foot, two-story mansion on the 71st floor of the St. Regis Residences.
According to a permit application Lucas and Hobson filed with building officials on Feb. 22, the couple plan to completely renovate the 66th-floor unit, including adding two new interior staircases and new electrical and mechanical work on the 65th floor. They have hired architect Scott Fortman of Gibbons, Fortman & Associates to do the design work.
Angelo Garcia, who oversees Lucas' real estate assets, referred inquiries to spokesman Matt Yale, who did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Compass real estate agent Kathryn Malkin, who represented Lucas and Hobson in their purchase of the 66th-floor unit, declined to comment on any aspect of the transaction or even to confirm her client's identity, as did Premier Relocation real estate agent Susan Miner, who represented Griffin in the sale of the 66th-floor unit. Griffin has relocated to Miami.
Lucas, who turns 80 on May 14, has a net worth of $5.5 billion, according to Forbes' 2024 list. Lucas and Hobson, who turns 55 in May, purchased the unit on the 66th floor of Park Tower in 2023 using an opaque Delaware limited liability company, and their identities as buyers have not previously been reported. They purchased the unit on the 65th floor in 2015 using a Delaware limited liability company with a different name.
The couple has had a long-standing attachment to Park Tower: Mr. Hobson, who is also Starbucks' non-executive chairman and co-CEO of Ariel Investments, bought a unit on the building's 48th floor for $1.7 million in 2007, before he and Ms. Lucas married. The couple bought a condo on the 26th floor of Park Tower for $4.9 million in 2012.
The couple's new duplex at Park Tower will not only set a Chicago price record for a completed condominium, it's also made up of units that previously set Chicago record purchase prices: When Griffin bought the 66th floor in 2012, he paid $15 million, a Chicago record at the time, and three years later, Lucas and Hobson purchased the 65th floor for $18.75 million, also a Chicago record.
Property taxes for the new mixed-use duplex would have totaled $328,477 for the 2022 tax year.
Lucas and Hobson own numerous properties around the world, including a six-bedroom, 15,159-square-foot home in San Anselmo, California, that Lucas has owned for many years; a nine-bedroom, 8,932-square-foot mansion in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles that he purchased from Ross Perot in 2017 for $33.9 million; two homes in Carpinteria, California, near Santa Barbara, purchased for $28 million and $19.5 million, respectively; a New York City mansion that Hobson purchased for $3.3 million in 2006; a restored monastery in Passignano, Italy; a chateau in Chateauvert, France; and the 4,700-acre Skywalker Ranch near Nicasio, California, which Lucas began building in 1978.
Meanwhile, Griffin still owns his full-floor penthouse condo on the 67th floor, the top floor of Park Tower, which is listed for sale for $15.75 million, matching the second-highest asking price currently for a home in the city.
The most expensive home ever built in the entire Chicago area is billionaire Justin Ishbia's mansion under construction in Winnetka, Michigan. As Elite Street first reported last year, it cost $77.7 million, including land and construction costs detailed in building permits.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.