Former President Barack Obama is pictured next to construction of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Illinois, a project facing delays, soaring costs and mounting scrutiny over its finances. (Scott Olson/Getty Images; REUTERS/Vincent Alban)
But when former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama turned the sod at the site in September 2021, just $1 million — or 0.21% of the pledged funds — had been deposited into the endowment, and that figure has remained unchanged ever since.
With construction progressing at a snail’s pace and costs ballooning from an original estimate of $330 million to at least $850 million, the lack of progress on the promised endowment has fueled fears the Obama Presidential Center could leave taxpayers holding the can if finances spiral into the red.
It comes as the Obama Foundation’s latest tax return shows its finances under strain with revenue swinging wildly year to year, fundraising shortfalls and unfulfilled donor pledges.
On news that the endowment has largely remained unfunded, Illinois GOP Chair Kathy Salvi slammed the project as an "abomination" while blasting Democrats for potentially exposing taxpayers with the deal.
"It should come as no surprise that the Obama Center is potentially leaving Illinois taxpayers high and dry — it’s an Illinois Democrat tradition," Salvi told Fox News Digital in a statement. "Democrats in this state, when not going to prison for corruption, treat taxpayers like a personal piggy bank giving sweetheart deals to their political benefactors."
An aerial view shows construction of the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park, Chicago, Illinois, where costs have soared and questions remain about the project’s funding. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
While the foundation’s agreement with the city required it to create an endowment, it did not specify an amount. The $470 million figure was being reported on as the city council deliberated on the deal and the foundation committed to that sum in its 2020 annual report.
In 2021 documents, the foundation said that first-year operating costs would be as much as $40 million. By that math, the center would actually need an endowment of between $800 million to $1 billion to fund operations without tapping the principle.
It’s also unclear how much revenue the foundation expects to generate each year.
Epstein said the lack of funds has long been the project’s Achilles heel. Without the endowment it promised, the project's financial underpinning remains shaky, he said.
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Despite financial pressures, the Obama Foundation has already spent about $600 million constructing the center, which aims to honor former President Barack Obama's political career and be a civic hub. It consists of a 225-foot-tall museum, a digital library, conference facilities, a gymnasium and a regulation-sized NBA court. It will also house the Obama Foundation.
The new tax filings show the foundation ended 2024 with $116.5 million in cash, down nearly $80 million from the year before, while still owing about $234 million in construction costs. Of the funding gap, $216 million comes from firm pledges — promises of future donations — while another $201 million is tied up in conditional pledges that may never materialize if benchmarks aren’t met.
Epstein said the foundation’s financial assurances ring hollow, because a large chunk of the money it counts on is tied up in pledges and credit rather than cash in hand — leaving the center vulnerable to donor fatigue and year-to-year uncertainty.
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In the Protect Our Parks lawsuit, Epstein argued that handing Jackson Park to the Obama Foundation violated the public trust doctrine — which bars cities from giving away public land without a clear public benefit. The plaintiffs said the city gave away land worth nearly $200 million without securing enforceable returns for taxpayers.
However, U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey, an Obama appointee, dismissed the case in 2019, ruling that the Obama Center qualified as a public use and that courts should defer to the city’s determination. The Seventh Circuit upheld the dismissal in 2020 and various other challenges by the plaintiffs have also failed on the public trust doctrine argument.
Epstein now points to the foundation’s failure to fund its promised endowment as proof the project never truly met the public benefit test and that a core part of his argument was valid.
As well as not being able to fill the endowment, the foundation is also financing a $250 million revolving credit line that it has yet to draw down but is costing the foundation hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual fees, according to the tax filings.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker (L) joins former U.S. President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama in a ceremonial groundbreaking at the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park on Sept. 28, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois. At the time, around $1 million was in the endowment and it has remained relatively the same since. ( Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Epstein argues the endowment shortfall is just one example of how the project has skirted safeguards.
Its 99-year deal with the city was rebranded as a "use agreement," instead of a land lease, a legal pivot that he said let the city sidestep public-trust oversight and other regulatory checks.
The move grew out of an earlier fight over filmmaker George Lucas’s bid to build a Museum of Narrative Art on the lakefront. In 2016, a federal judge ruled the city’s plan to hand Lucas a 99-year lease of public parkland violated the public trust doctrine, sending Lucas packing for Los Angeles.
When the Obama Foundation arrived the following year, city officials adopted the new user agreement label. The terms were effectively the same — exclusive control for nearly a century in exchange for $10 — but by calling it a "use agreement," the city claimed it no longer triggered the same scrutiny.
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Epstein called it a textbook case of bending the rules. "You can’t get out of a government regulatory relationship by changing the name on something," he said.
Epstein said the foundation’s finances have never been fully scrutinized and his team was never allowed to examine the center’s internal records — from construction contracts to day-to-day statements — leaving the true state of its fundraising and shrouded in secrecy.
"They’ve gotten a free pass on both the environmental side and the financial side," Epstein said. "Unless somebody cracks open the books, nobody really knows if they can actually fund this project. And if they can’t, it’s the public that will be left holding the bag."
The offices of Mayor Brandon Johnson, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party of Illinois did not respond to requests for comment.
Michael Dorgan is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business.
You can send tips to michael.dorgan@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @M_Dorgan.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/obama-center-deposits-just-1m-into-470m-reserve-fund-aimed-to-protect-taxpayers-fueling-new-criticism