President Donald Trump’s Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has terminated the lease at the Obama Presidential Library site.
The library is located at the Hoffman Estates in the northwest of Chicago.
It is separate from the sprawling 19.3-acre Obama Presidential Center near Jackson Park in the southside of Chicago.
The Obama Presidential Center is under construction and is expected to be completed next year.
The site at the Hoffman Estates is run by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), as are all presidential libraries.
The Obama Presidential Center, meanwhile, is a private venture being overseen by the Obama Foundation.
DOGE this week updated its list of nearly 750 federal lease terminations, totaling around 9.6 million square feet in size.
The termination list now includes the Hoffman Estates site.
However, the termination of the lease is unlikely to impact operations there since it is due to close later this year and move to a new location.
Nevertheless, the move will save taxpayers a significant amount of money.
DOGE, which has been tasked by Trump to cut wasteful federal spending, said the terminations will save the taxpayer $468 million in lease savings.
The DOGE website did not provide a timetable for the closures.
Although, a NARA spokesperson said in a statement that the Hoffman Estates library was scheduled to close in late Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 and move to College Park in Maryland.
The government’s FY 2025 runs through September 30 this year.
There are about 25 million unclassified paper documents at the Hoffman Estate building, according to NARA’s estimate.
They are currently being digitized and will be available in digital format at the Obama Presidential Center when it opens.
Under the 1978 Presidential Records Act, NARA gets custody of all presidential records and artifacts when a president leaves office.
Currently at the Hoffman Estates are also 35,000 physical artifacts, including gifts given to the Obamas.
The library, a converted former furniture showroom, also houses former President Barack Obama’s silver BlackBerry, the draft of Obama’s first inaugural speech he wrote on a paper pad, a signed Pittsburgh Steelers football, a jeweled sword from Saudi Arabia, and dresses worn by former First Lady Michelle Obama.
Those artifacts will also be sent to Maryland and occasionally lent to the Obama Presidential Center, the Chicago Tribune reports.
NARA began leasing the building in 2016, paying $1.4 million each year in rent, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The ootlet cited the General Services Administration, which runs the government’s real estate portfolio.
The building is owned by Hoffman Estates Medical Development LLC, who bought it in 2011 and transformed it into a fortified, climate-controlled facility.
The Obama Presidential Library is expected to open sometime next year and has been plagued by delays and cost overruns.
It was initially expected to cost $350 million but that figure ballooned to $830 million in 2021.
It is unclear what the total costs will be.
It will consist of a 235-foot tower museum, a branch of the Chicago Public Library, conference facilities, a gymnasium, and a regulation-sized NBA court.
It will also house the nonprofit Obama Foundation, which is overseeing the center’s development.
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