CHICAGO, June 14 (Our Illinois Times) — The Obama Foundation’s financial safety net for the Obama Presidential Center remains under scrutiny because the foundation publicly said in 2020 that $470 million of its fundraising goal would seed an endowment, while later tax filings cited in national reporting show only $1 million deposited into that fund.
The issue has gained new business weight as contractors and subcontractors on the Chicago project say they are owed money or have absorbed losses ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions. Mike Owen, president and owner of Adamson Plumbing, told Fox News his company is still owed nearly $4 million for work on the project. He attributed the losses to rework, delays and more than 100 change-order requests, according to company spreadsheets he provided to the outlet.
The Obama Foundation disputes any suggestion that the center lacks the money needed to open or operate. In a statement cited by Fox News, the foundation said, “On the eve of our Grand Opening celebrations, we are pleased to reiterate that the Obama Presidential Center is fully funded with generous private contributions.” The foundation also said it plans to make “significant investments” in the endowment in coming years.
The records available so far point to two separate questions: whether the foundation has met its legal duty under its agreement with Chicago, and whether the endowment matches the public financial expectations set during years of project deliberations.
The city agreement gave the Obama Foundation control of a 19.3-acre section of Jackson Park under a 99-year deal for a one-time payment of $10, according to descriptions of the agreement in national reporting. That deal required the creation of an endowment, but the cited reporting says it did not set a required dollar amount. The foundation has said it is in compliance with the city agreement for that reason.
The $470 million figure comes from public discussions and the foundation’s own 2020 annual report. That report said, “$470M of our fundraising goal will go toward seeding an endowment that will sustain Obama Foundation activities and the operations of the OPC for generations to come.”
Tax filings cited by Fox News show the foundation deposited $1 million into the endowment in 2021. Fox reported that the fund remained largely unchanged in the most recent publicly available filings. By the time Barack and Michelle Obama held the September 2021 groundbreaking at the Jackson Park site, the endowment held $1 million, according to the filings described in that reporting.
The foundation has said the center itself is fully funded. Its cited tax filings also show a more complex cash picture. Fox News reported that the foundation ended 2024 with $116.5 million in cash, down nearly $80 million from the prior year, while still owing about $234 million in construction costs. The same filings, as described in the reporting, listed $216 million in firm pledges and another $201 million in conditional pledges. Fox also reported the foundation had a $250 million revolving credit facility that had not been used but carried annual fees.
The center’s construction costs have also grown. Fox News reported, citing the foundation’s 2024 tax filings, that the cost rose from an original estimate of $330 million to at least $850 million. The foundation had spent more than $615 million building the center as of the latest cited records.
The endowment issue matters because the foundation previously estimated annual operating costs for the center could reach about $40 million, according to 2021 documents cited in national reporting. The 2020 annual report tied the endowment not just to center operations, but also to sustaining broader Obama Foundation activities.
The contractor-payment disputes add pressure to the project’s finances. Owen, of Adamson Plumbing, told Fox News the $1 million endowment balance had not changed: “It’s still sitting at the $1 million mark [where it stood] when they opened it up.”
Omar Shareef, president of the African American Contractors Association, told Fox News that several Black-owned contractors were in financial difficulty because of the project. The total amount allegedly owed across all subcontractors has not been established in the records provided, and no court filings, lien records or contract files were included in the available research materials.
The project also carries a public-finance angle for Illinois. The Illinois Department of Transportation said about $229 million in infrastructure spending was tied to the site, up from an earlier estimate of about $174 million, according to data the agency provided to Fox News. Fox also reported that Chicago officials had not produced a reconciled total showing how much city taxpayers had committed or how current spending compared with the roughly $175 million discussed when the project was approved.
Taken together, the record shows that the foundation’s city deal did not require a $470 million endowment, but the foundation’s own 2020 annual report named that amount as part of its fundraising plan. The foundation says it is compliant, the center is fully funded and larger endowment investments are planned. Contractors, meanwhile, say unpaid balances and project losses have left some firms under severe financial strain as the center nears its opening in Chicago’s Jackson Park.
