Subcontractors say they’re owed millions, face financial ruin, after helping build Obama Presidential Center
Adamson Plumbing owner Mike Owen says his company is owed nearly $4M on the Chicago project
The Obama Presidential Center was billed as a lasting legacy to former President Barack Obama, and its construction was touted as an ambitious model built with aggressive goals for minority-owned and local businesses.
But now, some of the very subcontractors who helped build the 19.3-acre campus on Chicago’s South Side say they are facing financial ruin as they race to recover millions of dollars they claim remain unpaid ahead of the center’s grand opening Friday. Overall construction costs were reported to be $830 million in 2021, and have likely climbed past the $1 billion mark.
A Fox News Digital investigation identified multiple construction firms claiming losses ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to tens of millions. The allegations cut against one of the Center’s defining goals: helping minority-owned businesses and local contractors grow through one of Chicago’s highest-profile construction projects. Several of the complaints reviewed by Fox News Digital come from firms that were supposed to benefit from that mission.
Among them is Adamson Plumbing, whose owner Mike Owen says is nearly $4 million in the red after years of work on the project.
“That is a hole that no subcontractor, small business can survive,” Owen said.
Subcontractor owners interviewed by Fox News Digital described what they characterized as a chaotic work environment marked by repeated design changes, rework, scheduling disruptions, extensive oversight and years-long compensation disputes that still remain unresolved.
Several also described what they viewed as a wall of silence surrounding the project, with some declining to speak publicly or requesting anonymity because of confidentiality agreements or fears of professional retaliation.
The allegations emerge days after a Fox News Digital investigation reported that the Obama Foundation’s reserve fund — originally promoted as a $470 million financial safeguard intended to help protect taxpayers if the project encountered financial trouble — remains funded at roughly $1 million.