Obama's 'Eyesore' Presidential Center Nears $1 Billion in Cost as Locals Fear Being Displaced by 'Monstrosity'

The controversy surrounding former President Barack Obama’s presidential center in Chicago is continuing to grow as locals push back against the “eyesore” building’s development.

The cost of Obama’s presidential library is now nearing $1 billion, according to financial records from the former president’s own foundation.

The Obama Presidential Center has been mired in development for years.

However, the development is proceeding despite intense local opposition in Chicago, with critics slamming the towering, grey structure as both ugly and a threat to the impoverished South Side community.

The center is slated to open in the spring, five years behind schedule and more than two times over budget.

Obama, a former “community organizer,” touted the progress of his center in his foundation’s annual financial disclosure.

“On the South Side of Chicago—just steps from where I began my own journey as a young organizer—we’re building something big,” Obama said in an introductory note to the report.

“Not just in scale, but in spirit.

“The Center will be a place where young people can find their voice, where neighbors can gather and exchange ideas, and where people from every corner of the world can come to be inspired, empowered, and connected.”

According to the Obama Foundation, construction costs have now exceeded $600 million.

The figure is more than double the initial $300 million estimate.

However, the current final estimate is a staggering $850 million, and rising, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The project has faced years of delays and legal challenges.

Angry locals say the center, situated in the middle of historic Jackson Park, is ruining the flow of the neighborhood and driving up rent.

“It looks like this big piece of rock that just landed here out of nowhere in what used to be a really nice landscape of trees and flowers,” Ken Woodard, 39, a lawyer and father of six who grew up in the area told Daily Mail.

“It’s a monstrosity.”

Obama’s team is reportedly planning community tours to encourage locals to “begin to imagine how they will use and enjoy” the center.

Meanwhile, Obama’s friends and allies are reaping a juicy profit, with top executives at the foundation receiving over $6 million, the Daily Mail reported.

Alderwoman Jeanette Taylor, who represents the area in city government, is an Obama supporter but she has concerns about how the project will impact the neighborhood.

“We’re going to see rents go higher and we’re going to see families displaced,” she told the Daily Mail.

“Every time large development comes to communities, they displace the very people they say they want to improve it for,” she added.