Presidio seeks promising partners -- with deep pockets.

Most people don't know there are already nine places to eat in the Presidio. This perception -- that the sprawling park is a commercial desert -- is one which might discourage potential tenants, says Ann Blackburn, the Presidio's deputy director of real estate, and a problem she wants to fix.

"We're trying to build an identity for retail," she says. "Service retail, like restaurants -- amenities that will benefit people out here."

"People out here" could include George Lucas and his proposed Industrial Light and Magic campus, though that contract is still under negotiation.

"It's simply the fact that it's a very complicated deal. We expect to lock in that agreement this summer," says Jim Meadows, executive director of the Presidio Trust.

If signed, it will call for the demolition of the Letterman Hospital complex to make room for Lucas' 900,000-square-foot facility. If Lucas comes, Blackburn says, there will have to be even more retail to support the 2,500 employees at the campus.

"Though there are nine places to eat," says Hillary Gitelman, the new deputy director for planning at the Presidio Trust, "we do recognize that there's a desire for some kind of neighborhood level retail, and in the long term, we're going to pursue that."

If Lucas doesn't come ... well, no one's talking about that right now. San Francisco investment bank W.R. Hambrecht & Co. recently canceled plans to locate its Internet investment banking division in the Presidio, citing changes in its office needs as well as traffic and parking issues. The firm also balked at some of the requirements of renting in a historic structure, with restrictions on use and modification of space. Tenants must work within the existing shell of a building and are some times required to allow public access if the structure is of historic interest.