The iconic Sandcrawler building, which is designed to resemble the Jawas’ vehicle from ‘Star Wars IV,’ has served as Lucasfilm’s primary animation and VFX facility in Asia since it was opened by George Lucas in 2013.
Blackstone Group has started the process of buying Lucasfilm’s flagship building in Singapore for about $132 million (175 million Singaporean dollars).
The iconic commercial development, known as the Sandcrawler Building, features a facade designed to resemble the Jawas’ vehicle on Tatooine from Star Wars IV. The home of Lucasfilm’s animation and VFX teams in Asia, work has been done there on everything from Harry Potter movies to Marvel tentpoles and Star Wars installments. The building also houses Disney’s corporate offices for Southeast Asia.
Blackstone has already submitted to Singapore’s regulatory authorities for approval to close the transaction, according to Bloomberg, which was the first to report on the deal. The business wire cited unnamed sources with knowledge of the transaction.
A spokesperson at Disney’s Singapore office declined to comment when contacted Wednesday by The Hollywood Reporter.
Disney unveiled the Sandcrawler facility at a splashy event in 2013, with George Lucas, Kathleen Kennedy and Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong delivering speeches.
Spanning nearly 250,000 square feet, the Sandcrawler Building is located in a southwest suburb of Singapore, where offices for several other media and tech companies, such as Apple and Discovery, are based. The property includes a 100-seat theater, shopping areas and a “Yoda fountain” surrounded by tropical gardens.
The sizable sale points to the growing appeal of Singapore among global real estate investors and multinationals. China’s harsh crackdown on democratic freedoms and the rule of law in Hong Kong has led to some companies shifting their operations and investments towards the stable city-state to the south. The growing economies of Southeast Asia also have lured large firms. Bloomberg notes that Amazon and Facebook are both boosting their footprint in the city, while China’s tech giants Tencent and ByteDance are also looking to expand their presence.
Read more: THR
