Filmmaker George Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, have combined two adjoining condominiums on the 65th and 66th floors of Chicago’s Park Tower to create a 16,000-square-foot duplex penthouse. The combined cost of the two units and construction costs is $33.5 million, according to a building permit application filed with the city, making it the most expensive finished condo in Chicago history.
Lucas, who turns 80 in May, and Hobson, 54, have been steadily accumulating units in the Streeterville building. Before marrying Lucas in 2013, Hobson paid $1.7 million in 2007 for a 48th-floor unit. The couple also paid $4.9 million in 2012 for a condo on the 26th floor. In 2015, they paid $18.75 million for the full-floor 65th-floor condo.
Last year, they added the 66th-floor penthouse to their collection, paying $11.2 million to Citadel founder Ken Griffin, who relocated to Miami. Griffin had bought the unit for $15 million in 2012, setting a city record at the time.
The couple’s new combined duplex will have two interior staircases and new electrical and mechanical work on the 65th floor. Architect Scott Fortman of Gibbons, Fortman & Associates is designing the buildout.
The combined condo will cost $33.5 million to assemble, including construction costs and the purchase prices of the two units. That’s more than the $20.56 million that Mexican billionaire German Larrea spent in 2022 for a four-bedroom, 10,000-square-foot duplex condominium on the 71st floor of the Residences at the St. Regis Tower, which was previously the city’s most expensive condo sale.
Lucas and Hobson used a Delaware limited liability company to buy the 66th-floor unit and a differently named Delaware limited liability company to buy the 65th-floor unit in 2015. Angelo Garcia, who oversees real estate holdings for Lucas, referred an inquiry to a spokesman, Matt Yale, who did not immediately respond to an email seeking a comment. Real estate agent Katherine Malkin of Compass, who represented Lucas and Hobson in buying the 66th-floor unit, declined to comment on any aspect of the deal or even confirm her clients’ identities, as did real estate agent Susan Miner of Premier Relocation, who represented Griffin in selling the 66th-floor unit.
Lucas and Hobson own a number of other properties around the world, including a six-bedroom, 15,159-square-foot house in San Anselmo, California; a nine-bedroom, 8,932-square-foot mansion in Los Angeles’ Bel-Air area; two homes in Carpinteria, California, near Santa Barbara; a condo in New York City; a restored convent in Passignano, Italy; a chateau in Chateauvert, France; and the 4,700-acre Skywalker Ranch near Nicasio, California.
Meanwhile, Griffin continues to own the full-floor penthouse condo on the 67th floor of the Park Tower, which is the building’s top floor. It’s for sale for $15.75 million, which is tied for the second highest-priced asking price for any home in the city right now. Across the Chicago area, the most expensive residence in history is billionaire Justin Ishbia’s mansion under construction on Lake Michigan in Winnetka, which has a $77.7 million cost, including land and construction costs.
