The date for the Obama Presidential Center’s groundbreaking in a historic park on Chicago’s South Side has been delayed following a second delay in the federal review process, according to a report.
Construction on the center is now set to begin sometime in 2019 rather than starting this year, the Obama Foundation told the Chicago Tribune. But it’s unclear whether the new date will affect the center’s scheduled opening in 2021.
“We have a sense of urgency about this project [and] when we started, we wanted the public to know we would break ground as soon as possible,” Michael Strautmanis, the Obama Foundation’s vice president for civic engagement, told the newspaper. “But we also knew there were some things that were not in our control. We insist on going through the process with integrity and without rushing.”
The proposal, estimated to cost $500 million, includes an eight-story, 235-foot-tall main building accompanied by a 300-seat auditorium in a separate facility, a third structure for a public library, as well as a 440-car underground parking garage.
[Related: Obama Presidential Center to cost Illinois taxpayers nearly $200 million]
However, the plan has irked environmentalists and historians given the status of Jackson Park, the proposed site for the center, and the impact it will have on nearby roads.
The Obama Foundation is seeking approval from the Environmental Protection Agency under the National Environmental Policy Act and Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. A third meeting regarding the federal review process was pushed back to later in the summer, causing repercussions for the groundbreaking date, per the Tribune.
