Former President Barack Obama revealed his presidential center will open in June 2026. (Adrian Dennis/Getty Images)
The center will be home to the presidential library, a museum, auditorium, a Chicago Public Library branch, a garden, athletic facility and other attractions on its 20-acre campus.
"We want to create a campus, a place where the public gathers for a range of things that puts them face to face with each other and get them to meet and be in dialogue and conversation and exposed to new ideas with each other," Obama said on Monday, according to the Chicago Sun -Times.
CHICAGO RESIDENTS CALL OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER A 'MONSTROSITY,' FEAR THEY'LL BE DISPLACED: REPORT
The $850 million project in Jackson Park was first hit with a years-long lawsuit in 2018 when a group called Protect Our Parks alleged that Chicago illegally transferred parkland to the private Obama Foundation. That court battle persisted until 2022, when a federal judge terminated a revised version of the suit.
Former President Barack Obama revealed his presidential center will open in June 2026. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, the Obama Foundation has celebrated the center as "a lively community hub, economic anchor, and beacon of democracy right here on the South Side of Chicago."
A groundbreaking ceremony for the project was not held until 2021, with construction picking up in earnest in the last year.
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Fox News Digital reached out to the Obama Foundation for any additional comment on the center's opening day, but did not immediately receive a reply.
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