A Chicago plumbing contractor that helped build the Obama Presidential Center has shut down and laid off its workforce after claiming nearly $4 million in unpaid losses, and the Obama Foundation says the payment dispute is someone else's problem.

Mike Owen built Adamson Plumbing Contractors into a company that could handle major union jobs across Chicago. On June 25, he suspended operations, sent 25 union workers home, and walked away from roughly half a dozen other construction projects his firm could no longer afford to staff. The reason, Owen says, is straightforward: the people running the Obama Presidential Center's construction never paid what they owed.

Owen's company, operating under the name Marsh-Adamson on the project, has now filed a $1.72 million mechanic's lien, a legal claim against the property itself for unpaid work, against the Obama Presidential Center site in Jackson Park on Chicago's South Side. But Owen says the lien covers only the losses he can most readily document through company records, including unpaid fees, logged change orders, and labor overruns. The full figure he intends to pursue is $3.9 million.

Owen agreed to last-minute work in exchange for payment that never came on time

The sequence that pushed Adamson over the edge began weeks before the center's grand opening on June 19. Owen had spent months trying to negotiate a resolution with Lakeside Alliance, the construction manager overseeing the project. Lakeside Alliance is a joint venture led by Turner Construction and four Black-owned Chicago firms, UJAMAA Construction, Powers & Sons Construction, Brown & Momen, and Safeway Construction.

As the opening approached, Fox News Digital reported that Lakeside and Adamson struck a deal: Owen would supply two journeyman plumbers for last-minute "housekeeping" work at premium nighttime rates. In return, Lakeside would release $100,000 through Adamson's May payment application. An email reviewed by Fox News Digital shows a Lakeside representative confirming that arrangement to Owen.

Owen completed the work. The payment did not arrive before the June 19 opening. Owen described the agreement in blunt terms:

"We negotiated it in good faith. Against my better judgment, I agreed [to do the work]."

Six days after the center opened its doors, Owen shut his company down. The $100,000 retainage payment and roughly $35,000 for change orders finally arrived from Lakeside Alliance, more than two weeks after Owen had already suspended operations and sent his workers home. Owen said the late payment will be deducted from the $1.72 million lien, but it did not change the outcome for his business.

"It's almost like too little, too late. It probably would have just prolonged the inevitable at this point. We're still deep in the hole of what they owe us."

A billion-dollar project, a $10 lease, and contractors left holding the bill

The Obama Presidential Center was initially projected to cost roughly $350 million. By 2021, costs had climbed to $830 million. They have since reportedly surpassed $1 billion. The Obama Foundation secured the 19.3-acre Jackson Park site through a 99-year lease requiring a one-time payment of $10. And just $1 million has been deposited into a promised $470 million reserve fund intended to protect Chicago taxpayers.

Adamson Plumbing is not the only subcontractor claiming financial harm. The Concrete Collective, another firm that worked on the center, is seeking more than $40 million in additional payment, the largest known dispute. A previous Fox News Digital investigation identified several subcontractors, including Black-owned firms, that said they were owed money or had absorbed losses on the project. Approximately 475 contractors worked on the center, the New York Post noted.

The pattern is especially pointed given the project's stated mission. Lakeside Alliance was structured to include Black-owned Chicago construction firms. The center was promoted as a vehicle for community investment on the South Side. Yet some of the very minority-owned businesses the project was designed to uplift have reported being stiffed.

Owen, for his part, has moved out of his company's building and now works from home. He has turned the matter over to his attorneys.

"Laying off close to 30 people is something that no owner in our industry wants to do. It's a hard thing to do, especially when you know you can finish them and the company can still make money. But we were put in a pretty bad corner."

Lakeside and the Obama Foundation point fingers elsewhere

Neither Lakeside Alliance nor the Obama Foundation directly addressed Owen's layoffs or the $1.72 million lien in their public statements. Lakeside said it "remains committed to working through all outstanding matters to successfully close out the project" and noted that "contractual closeout continues long after the doors have opened" on major construction efforts.

The Obama Foundation, meanwhile, said Lakeside Alliance, not the foundation, was responsible for managing and paying subcontractors. The foundation also claimed it had no outstanding disputed charges with Lakeside and touted its own payment practices. The Obama Presidential Center, which the foundation oversees, issued a statement saying its "commitment began with a 15-day payment cycle, which is largely unheard of in major construction projects" and that it "sometimes accelerated payment timelines or advanced payments months before work was completed."

Owen was not impressed by the foundation's distancing. He claims the losses stem from delays, rework, labor overruns, and constantly changing project demands, problems that trace back to how the project was managed from the top.

"It's become perfectly obvious to me that the ownership group there, they truthfully just don't care. I don't know any other way to say it."

Owen was careful to note he was not accusing former President Barack Obama of personal responsibility. But he drew a sharp contrast in how the dispute has been received publicly.

"There would be holy h*** to pay. They would be picketing. They would be storming the castle."

That was Owen's description of what he believes would happen if the project were associated with someone like Elon Musk or Ken Griffin, the Chicago billionaire whose name adorns the neighboring Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, rather than the Obama Foundation.

Pritzker silent as union workers lose their jobs

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker's office did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment on the dispute. Owen singled out the governor's silence.

"But he hasn't said anything publicly about the [union companies at the] presidential center getting stiffed. And it bothers me."

The governor's silence is notable in a state where union labor carries significant political weight. Twenty-five union workers lost their jobs. A company that had been operating across multiple job sites folded. And the state's top elected official has offered no public comment.

Meanwhile, the center's grand opening on June 18 and 19 featured performances by Bruce Springsteen, Christina Aguilera, John Legend, Stevie Wonder, Common, Eddie Vedder with The Roots, and Bono and The Edge of U2. The celebration was lavish. Michelle Obama used the occasion to address the public on her own terms. The contractors who built the stage, the plumbing, and the walls were not part of the festivities.

Breitbart reported that the center had also drawn criticism for seeking unpaid skilled volunteers while its CEO was set to receive a $740,000 salary, a detail that sharpens the contrast between the institution's spending priorities and the subcontractors waiting on checks.

Owen vows to keep fighting from his home office

Owen said he plans to regroup by September and has not ruled out further legal action beyond the mechanic's lien.

"It doesn't mean that I'm not going to pursue the $3.9 million in change that we lost overall. I'm still working with my legal team on that $3.9 million figure because I feel that it's only right that we still hold ownership at the presidential center accountable."

He acknowledged the fight will be expensive and exhausting. But he framed it as a matter of principle, a small business owner using the legal system the way it was designed to work.

"I'm not a litigious person, but at the same time, our legal system is there to protect the small guy. I'm just going to have to fight this out legally from here on out, and these aren't cheap costs."

Owen described the toll in personal terms, saying the process had "drained me out financially and emotionally." He said he would need to find a job himself, a prospect he accepted without complaint but never expected.

Other subcontractors, Owen suggested, had held out hope that the disputes would be resolved. That hope has faded. Obama-era institutions continue to shape policy and public life, but the workers who built this particular monument to that legacy are still waiting to be made whole.

"But I think a lot of us out there, the main subcontractors, all still had this feeling that it was going to be worked out in the end, until it wasn't."

A billion-dollar project, a $10 lease, celebrity headliners, and a CEO pulling three-quarters of a million dollars a year, and the plumber who kept the building running can't make payroll. That tells you everything about whose interests this center was built to serve.