Amid the June 2026 opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, rumors spread online that the former president's foundation "stiffed" Black and minority contractors who worked on the museum, library and education project.
Claims about unpaid contractors circulated on X and Facebook. Numerous Snopes readers wrote in to ask if the Obamas had not paid their contractors and requested verification of various opinion pieces and news articles about the alleged issue.
This rumor needs context. Some subcontractors who worked on the Obama Presidential Center have, indeed, alleged that they were not paid or not paid in full, and at least one of those subcontractors is a Black-owned business, per court filings. However, the Obama Foundation contracted with Lakeside Alliance — which is composed of multiple Black-owned firms — as the project's construction manager, meaning Lakeside was responsible for hiring, managing and paying subcontractors. Reports suggest the Obama Foundation has no direct disputed charges with Lakeside.
A judge has not determined whether any of the subcontractors are owed compensation, a court has not decided how much blame lies with the Obama Foundation, if any, and it was not possible to independently review relevant contract language. As such, we have left the claim unrated.
"As with many major construction projects, contractual closeout — including the review and resolution of outstanding invoices, change orders, and other project matters — continues long after the doors open," a spokesperson for Lakeside Alliance said in an email. "We remain committed to working through outstanding matters to successfully close out the project."
Lakeside Alliance also noted that about 475 subcontractors worked on the project. The Obama Foundation committed to ensuring that a minimum of half of its subcontracts would go to diverse firms, including businesses owned by racial minorities, women and veterans.
The construction of the Obama Presidential Center reportedly weathered years-long delays due to federal reviews and failed legal challenges to its construction. The Obama Foundation said in an emailed statement that it "accelerated a number of payment timelines, and in some cases, advanced payment several months before the work was completed."
"From day one of this project, the Foundation has been committed to a subcontracting process that exceeds industry standards for financial support to firms who are being hired and managed by the Lakeside Alliance," the statement said.
Here's what we know:
Reports cite frustrated subcontractors
This claim appeared to originate from a June 12 story (archived) from
The Crain's story included interviews with Mike Owen, a contractor who reportedly said he is owed nearly $4 million, and Omar Shareef, president of the African American Contractors Association.
Crain's reported that Shereef said "seven different Obama Center subcontractors muzzled by non-disclosure agreements have sought his help in pursuing their claims over the past four months," some of whom are allegedly owed seven-figure sums.
Crain's also interviewed Ryan Cowdrey, operations manager at woman-owned Air Design Systems, who said they did not have any issues being paid. Another contractor, who was quoted anonymously, said he "struggles with identifying a single culprit, given the vast number of stakeholders involved with the project."
Five days later, Fox News released an investigation (archived) that replicated much of the Crain's reporting and included additional information while omitting context about contractors who have not had issues. Fox News' report, which included a filmed interview with Owen, said Owen's business was not minority-owned.
In other words, Crain's and Fox News did not cite any on-the-record interviews with any subcontractor described as Black other than
We also reached out to Black Contractors United, a major advocacy group based in Chicago that appears not to have commented on the payment disputes, and await a response.
Allegations in court
Both Crain's and Fox News cited a lawsuit filed in January 2025 alleging that the firm providing structural engineering services for the Obama Presidential Center construction project, Thornton Tomasetti, racially discriminated against one of the project's Black subcontractors and his company.
Bob McGee, owner of II in One, a member of a joint venture called The Concrete Collective, claimed that Thornton Tomasetti subjected the company to unreasonable rules, "excessively rigorous and unnecessary inspection" and overly burdensome paperwork.
The complaint alleges Thornton Tomasetti singled out "a minority-owned subcontractor for unfair criticism … while, in the same letter, stating that the non-minority-owned contractors were sufficiently qualified" (Page 2).
"Moreover, the Obama Foundation relied on the false, defamatory and discriminatory actions of the Defendants when it denied Concrete Collective's claim for additional compensation," the complaint continued (Page 12).
The lawsuit sought roughly $40 million in compensation, stating that McGee "may be forced to seek bankruptcy protection" (Page 9). The suit was widely reported on at the time of its filing.
The complaint included a memo Thornton Tomasetti prepared in 2024 to defend itself against Lakeside Alliance's "contention" that Thornton Tomasetti was "somehow responsible for certain challenges encountered during the Project's concrete construction."
"The construction issues were all unequivocally driven by the underperformance and inexperience of the concrete sub-contractor, Concrete Collective ('CC') and poor coordination and timing" by Lakeside Alliance, the memo said.
The memo included pictures of cracked slab and exposed rebar. Thornton Tomasetti also claimed it spent hundreds of hours reviewing corrective work and "bent over backwards to assist what everyone knows was a questionably qualified sub-contractor team in areas where a more qualified sub-contractor would not have required it" (pages 5-8).
The Concrete Collective called that statement "defamatory" and pointed to years of experience, including successful completion on major landmarks in Chicago including Millennium Park, Wrigley Field and the University of Chicago (Page 12).
In a motion to dismiss the case, Thornton Tomasetti's attorneys said the Concrete Collective "smears Thornton Tomasetti as racist without a shred of factual support."
Bankruptcy claims
As Fox News reported, two firms who worked on the Obama Presidential Center have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection: Vision Painting & Decorating Services and Glass Management Services. Both companies appeared to be either Black-owned or Black-led.
An attorney for Vision Painting & Decorating Services, Greg Stern, said in an email that the company's bankruptcy was "obviously" due to "Obama being way behind schedule and other public work constraints."
Stern
Glass Management Services, however, claimed in court that its bankruptcy "was caused, in part, by significant project delays, cost overruns, and financial harm resulting from defects in Concrete Collective's work," given that properly installing the glass for the project would hinge on timely completion of concrete work (Page 3).
The documents suggest Glass Management Services may have a claim against Lakeside Alliance for failing to notify the contractor about Concrete Collective's allegedly defective work, despite supposedly knowing about the issues.
While the documents reference the Obama Foundation, they make no direct claim about either Lakeside or the Obama Foundation refusing to pay for work by Glass Management Services.
An attorney for Glass Management Services did not immediately respond to a request to clarify whether the companies had any direct payment disputes with the Obama Foundation.
The bottom line
While subcontractors have alleged that the Obama Foundation's contractors have refused to sufficiently pay them, and at least one of those subcontractors is Black-owned, the sheer number of stakeholders involved in this project make it impossible, as of this writing, to determine who is to blame.
Furthermore, many of these instances appear to be payment disputes, rather than subcontractors being wholly "stiffed," as the claim might imply.