The Obama Foundation has released documents that detail the latest and most comprehensive price tag yet on the upcoming presidential center in Chicago’s Jackson Park: $830 million.
The amount will go in three buckets: the $700 million cost of construction, which officially kicked off Monday and is expected to take four years; $90 million for preparing artifacts, exhibits and the center’s opening; and $40 million in the first year of operating costs, according to an annual report and tax return for 2020 released this week.
Previously, the bricks-and-mortar costs were estimated to be $500 million and before that, more than $300 million.
By the end of last year, the foundation had about $561 million in net assets, up from 2019′s total of $430 million, according to the 990 tax form. The nonprofit also raised $171 million in donations last year, adding up to a total $720 million in gifts the foundation has collected since 2016. About 58% of 2020′s haul came from other nonprofits or corporations, the rest from individuals.
On the expense side, the tax form details that the foundation spent $41 million last year, down from 2019′s $55 million total. The highest-paid officials were CEO David Simas, who made $608,066 in 2020; Executive Director Robbin Cohen, whose salary was $551,913; and then-foundation President Adewale Adeyemo, at $546,477.
That was about a $50,000 pay cut from 2019 for both Simas and Cohen.
Adeyemo was tapped to be President Joe Biden’s deputy Treasury secretary at the end of the year and was replaced by former Obama White House official Valerie Jarrett.
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Over the next five years, the foundation aims to raise $1.6 billion. Most is for the Obama Presidential Center, but the foundation also hopes to generate $320 million for global programming and $470 million for an endowment dedicated to the center’s operations and other activities.
More than 100 donors contributed more than $1 million to the Obama Foundation last year, according to the nonprofit’s website. Some notable names in that group include the charity arms of former couple Bill and Melinda Gates; Ken Griffin, the billionaire CEO of Chicago-based hedge fund Citadel; Nike; and Oprah Winfrey. Retired Chicago Bulls star Michael Jordan and ex-President and first lady Barack and Michelle Obama themselves also gave more than $1 million.
The Obama center campus has been years in the making, with Obama announcing in 2016 that he picked the historic Jackson Park on the South Side to be the future site. The campus will include a museum, Obama Foundation offices, a public library branch, an athletic center and an outdoor recreation space. Its opening initially had been set for this year, but almost five years of obstacles have stood in the way.
Those hurdles included two lawsuits from park preservationists and a long-running federal review process, which officially wrapped up in February.
The group Protect Our Parks tried to halt Monday’s groundbreaking with a court injunction, which was shot down by a federal judge earlier this month. The plaintiffs filed a long-shot petition with the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday, calling for the higher court to intervene.
ayin@chicagotribune.com
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