Barack Obama‘s much-ballyhooed presidential center in Chicago has just blown past the $1 billion mark in construction costs and commitments.
And the Daily Mail can reveal that, while ticket demand has been high, it appears to be a disaster behind the scenes – with some of the mainly minority contractors who helped build the former president’s sprawling monument saying they’re fighting to get millions owed them and more than 250 Obama Foundation and center staffers trying to unionize because of reduced benefits and heavy workloads.
One plumber even claims he is still awaiting a $1.7 million payment for work and has had to lay off dozens of union workers.
The head of Chicago’s African American Contractors Association told the Daily Mail that those overseeing Obama’s center have failed minority builders, while a Hispanic plumber who claims he lost his business because he wasn’t paid for his company’s work on the center says he’s living off his tax return.
‘People are not getting paid. It was a bad project,’ Omar Shareef told the Daily Mail.
‘I think he picked a bad team to oversee that project. They are too arrogant. They’re elitists.’
Shareef’s comments came as the Obama Foundation’s latest audited financial statements viewed by the Daily Mail reveal that construction costs had reached $908.9 million by the end of 2025, with another $109 million in outstanding commitments.
That puts the combined figure above $1 billion, nearly triple the original construction estimate of $300 million to $350 million, just four months after the presidential center opened its doors in Chicago’s Jackson Park.
Barack Obama’s long-awaited presidential center has blown past the $1 billion mark in construction costs and outstanding commitments – triple its original budget – the Daily Mail can reveal
Although the sprawling Obama Presidential Center was pitched as an economic engine for Chicago’s largely minority South Side, contractors now say some of the firms it was supposed to help have been left fighting to get paid
Meanwhile, foundation and center employees are trying to unionize amid complaints of rising healthcare costs, fewer benefits and increasingly demanding workloads.
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The crusade presents an awkward challenge for Obama, who has long championed organized labor. The foundation says it respects employees’ right to unionize.
But at least those people have jobs, said Mike Owen of Adamson Plumbing, who claimed he had to lay off 25 union workers and shut down his business when he was initially left holding $4 million in unpaid invoices for his company’s work at the center.
Owen, who is Hispanic, claimed to the Daily Mail that he’s still owed $1.7 million after paying upfront for approved materials and supplies.
‘I had to suspend our business because we couldn’t get paid,’ he said.
Now, the former business owner says he is searching for a job.
‘I’m living off my tax return, and I’m looking for work.’
Shareef, who has led his contractors’ association since 1989, said the problems first reached him when a group of subcontractors asked to meet at his South Side office.
The venue opened to great fanfare in Chicago’s Jackson Park in June but, behind the scenes, contractors have complained of payment disputes
A statue to former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama stands at the Chicago campus
They arrived with stories about payment disputes and businesses struggling to stay afloat.
‘About four or five’ companies were at risk of going under, Shareef recalled being told.
‘They ain’t paying them. They’re crushing them,’ he told the Daily Mail, recounting the contractors’ complaints.
Some were reluctant to speak publicly, he said, because they feared repercussions or had signed nondisclosure agreements.
‘Some of them are scared,’ he recalled.
The complaints involved delays, contested invoices and change orders, the additional work that can pile up when designs are altered or unexpected construction problems arise.
Shareef said four or five contractors approached him directly and estimated that more than 10 or 12 businesses or individuals had been involved in efforts to recover money.
He also described contractors who were initially hesitant to pursue their grievances, only to return months later when their financial situations deteriorated.
The Obama Foundation had bankrolled the project with big donations from billionaires including Jeff Bezos, Oprah Winfrey and George Soros
Construction costs surged by more than $293 million in 2025 alone as the massive project neared completion (pictured in August 2025)
Shareef said the complaints exposed a bitter contradiction at the heart of the project.
The Obama Presidential Center was promoted as an engine of economic opportunity for Chicago’s impoverished and largely minority South Side, with an ambitious commitment to award at least half of its subcontracting packages to diverse businesses.
Yet Shareef says some of the very black-owned firms the project was supposed to help have instead been left struggling.
‘They missed the mark by not making sure that those African American contractors that [were] involved [were] paid,’ he said.
Owen knows how quickly a payment dispute can turn into a business crisis.
His company, Adamson Plumbing, carried out extensive work at the presidential center under a contract that he claimed eventually grew to more than $9 million, including change orders.
Although Adamson collected most of the money, Owen said the unpaid balance became impossible to absorb after years of paying workers, buying materials and settling supplier bills.
‘I had spent a lot of money on materials and labor, and they stopped. They stopped paying us at the end,’ he said.
Several performers, including Bono and The Edge of U2, took the stage during a ribbon cutting ceremony at Obama’s $850 million, 225 ft shrine – a decade in the making – in June
‘It’s hard to run a business when your supplier, you owe your suppliers, and you’re 90 days behind.’
The head of one Chicago-based company whose employees did a lot of work for the Obama center and remain unpaid sounded both resigned and sad.
‘It’s been very disappointing and frustrating,’ he told the Daily Mail on condition that his name not be used.
‘It’s been one long ordeal with that project. We went in with the right intentions and hoped we were doing something special that would inspire people. Instead it’s turned out to be like a horror story.’
The executive said he did not blame President Obama and instead said his ‘team’ was the problem.
‘I’m still hoping it all gets cleared up and taken care of.’
For his part, Owen said he repeatedly approached Turner Construction and Lakeside Alliance, the construction teams organized by the Obama Center to oversee the project, asking when his company would receive payment.
The answer, he claimed, was always the same: ‘It’s in process.’
Former President Obama, left, and former first lady Michelle Obama arrive on stage during the dedication ceremony for the Obama Presidential Center
‘These Turner Construction, the Lakeside Alliance, could not care less about any of us or our feelings about our opinion on this project,’ he alleged.
Lakeside Alliance is a joint venture of five construction firms which consist of four local minority-owned businesses overseen by Turner Construction, a non-minority company that’s a subsidiary of a massive international company.
The consortium was designed to flip traditional contracting models by placing diverse local firms in leadership roles to maximize community hiring and economic impact on the South Side.
The foundation’s audited accounts reveal the extraordinary scale of the construction spending.
Costs recorded as construction in progress climbed from $615.7 million in 2024 to $908.9 million in 2025 – an increase of more than $293 million in a single year.
At the same time, the foundation’s accounts payable and accrued expenses nearly tripled, rising from $29.3 million to $83.1 million.
Cash fell from $116.5 million to $80.6 million, while financial assets available for expenditure within one year declined from $264.8 million to $100.6 million.
The foundation’s endowment, intended to help fund long-term operations rather than construction bills, stood at $14.2 million at the end of 2025.
Omar Shareef (left) says he knows multiple contracters who are at risk of going under while Mike Owen (right) says that he is still owed $1.7m for his work on the center
Richard Epstein, the University of Chicago legal scholar who helped mount an unsuccessful legal challenge to the presidential center, gave a brutal assessment of its finances.
‘Everything about this project has been done on fumes,’ Epstein told the Daily Mail.
‘The reason they can’t pay the contracts is they don’t have the money in the till.’
Epstein represented Protect Our Parks in litigation challenging the development in Jackson Park.
He believes the project was allowed to proceed without adequate financial safeguards and has been especially critical of the foundation’s endowment arrangements.
Chicago conservative radio host Dan Proft told the Daily Mail that the center has been a ‘boondoggle since the beginning’ and said that minority-owned businesses had been particularly exposed to the financial fallout.
‘The net result is that a bunch of people who did a bunch of work – disproportionately, minority contractors – have been destroyed,’ he said.
Steve Cortes, a former Trump adviser who produced a documentary examining the presidential center, said the ballooning construction budget was troubling in its own right.
The center has been met with high ticket demands since opening, despite feuds over money
‘As a construction project, just viewing it from that perspective, putting politics aside… it was an absurdity,’ he said.
‘Minority contractors not getting paid is outrageous,’ he told the Daily Mail.
‘It’s contrary to everything that the Obama Foundation claims to be.’
A spokesperson for the Obama Foundation told the Daily Mail, in part: ‘From day one of this project, the Foundation has been committed to a subcontracting process that exceeds industry standards for financial support to firms who are being hired and managed by the Lakeside Alliance. We have also committed to working with firms that have been historically shut out of opportunities…
‘At our request, Lakeside identified subcontractors who needed financial assistance. When identified, the Foundation has worked with Lakeside to find a path forward, often involving accelerated payments or prepayments to support the subcontractor’s efforts…
‘Our commitment began with a 15-day payment cycle, which is largely unheard of in major construction projects. We also accelerated a number of payment timelines, and in some cases, advanced payment several months before the work was completed.’
Finally, the Obama Foundation spokesperson added: ‘The Foundation has no outstanding disputed charges with Lakeside and the Foundation has no direct legal agreements or contracts with Lakeside’s subcontractors. Change orders are very common in similarly scaled projects with a major architect.’
In a statement, a spokesperson for Lakeside Alliance said: ‘The Obama Presidential Center involved multiple structures, thousands of design documents, and hundreds of trade partners and community businesses. As with many major construction projects of this scale and complexity, contractual closeout continues long after the doors have opened.
‘We are incredibly proud of our work on this project and how it created economic opportunity, supported local businesses, and expanded opportunities for local tradespeople and workers.’
The Daily Mail has also reached out to Turner Construction for comment.
The Obama Foundation has previously maintained that Lakeside Alliance bears primary responsibility for hiring and managing subcontractors and that the foundation has no direct contracts with those businesses.
According to the Real Deal, Lakeside Alliance previously said its normal for there to be delays in payment negotiations.
For Shareef, those explanations do not cut it.
‘They missed the mark,’ he said. ‘It’s a disgrace.’
