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Emanuel Fully Backs Plan To Locate Lucas Museum On Site Of McCormick Place East

CHICAGO (CBS) -- With the original site of the George Lucas Museum tied up in court, Mayor Rahm Emanuel says his administration is fully behind the alternative plan to locate the museum on land now used for the aging McCormick Place Lakeside Center, reports WBBM Political Editor Craig Dellimore.

Mayor Emanuel insists the old box-like McCormick Place East facility could be demolished and replaced with the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art without taxpayer funds and a new convention space would be constructed. He doesn't see a downside to the plan.

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"We would add nearly 12 acres of open land that does not exist and it would be maintained for at no public expense," Emanuel said. "Two, you would add a museum to complete the museum campus and all the cultural and educational enrichment that comes from that and third you would modernize McCormick Place so that it would be the largest convention center in the world."

But the project could still face a legal challenge as did the originally proposed site near Soldier Field, but the mayor calls it a win-win-win.

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