With Chicago on the verge Tuesday of being named the future home of Barack Obama’s presidential library, University of Hawaii officials still couldn’t say on the eve of the expected announcement that Honolulu would win some component of the project.
The Barack Obama Foundation was scheduled to make it official at 5 a.m. Central Time (midnight in Hawaii), followed by a news conference in Chicago later in the day featuring foundation Chairman Martin Nesbitt, a former Obama campaign manager from Chicago, and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the president’s former chief of staff.
Media reports indicated that the president might split up components of the Barack Obama Presidential Center similar to what President Bill Clinton did when he built his library, museum and institute in Arkansas and put his foundation in New York.
The Chicago Tribune reported that Columbia University in New York might end up with the foundation offices, according to sources, and Hawaii might land "a project that represents the state’s ties with the president." Also competing with the University of Chicago for the library was the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Dan Meisenzahl, UH spokesman, said Monday that the foundation had been in contact with the university, but added, "I can’t say anything else."
Previously, Meisenzahl said university officials were "eagerly looking forward to the formal announcement to see what Hawaii’s role will be," and that "every ounce of energy and every dime that was spent will be well worth it — and will come back to us tenfold."
What’s more, Gov. David Ige issued a statement that concluded, "We look forward to hearing from the foundation and hope to work with its team in the near future."
Obama’s sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, a resident of Honolulu, is one of four people listed on the Barack Obama Foundation board. Her husband, Konrad Ng, also was reportedly involved in the site selection.
On Tuesday the president, who launched his political career in Chicago, and first lady Michelle Obama, who grew up in Chicago, are expected to publicly talk about the site selection for the first time in a video.
According to the Obama Foundation, the president is looking to build a complex with three parts: library, museum and foundation described as "a grass-roots organization with global impact."
The library is envisioned to be an "international destination" reflecting the president’s values and priorities, including "expanding economic opportunity, inspiring an ethic of American citizenship, and promoting peace, justice, and dignity throughout the world," the foundation said.
"Over the last 14 months, the Foundation has evaluated more than a dozen potential sites through an RFP process and considered a number of key factors, such as transportation and accessibility, economic development opportunities, community interest and engagement and the potential for academic and programmatic collaboration," the foundation said in a statement Monday.
News of the University of Chicago’s selection as primary host of the presidential library leaked out a couple of weeks ago.
The University of Chicago, where Obama once taught law, was long considered the favorite, and delays in the site selection announcement were thought to be tied to the Chicago mayoral election and with complications in securing a project site within city parkland, an obstacle that has since been overcome.
In December Hawaii submitted a proposal that included an interactive museum and visitor center, plus a convening institute where world leaders could discuss global problems, a leadership academy focusing on issues related to schoolchildren, and a UH center for community organizing designed to appeal to Obama, a former community organizer in Chicago.
Eight acres of Hawaii Community Development Authority land, estimated to be worth $75 million, was set aside near the ocean in Kakaako.
Meisenzahl said the university, working on a shoestring budget, created a "great proposal." At the same time, he said, officials knew it was unlikely Hawaii would be awarded the entire presidential center, and that’s why they contacted competitors about collaborating.
But to earn a part of it, he said, UH was required to submit a proposal for the entire complex.
With nearly universal support from leaders across Hawaii, the state where Obama was born and graduated from high school spent more than $500,000 pursuing the library. That includes $390,000 in state Legislature-approved funding and about $50,000 in university funds, plus the cost of a faculty member who spent 75 percent of his time on the project, a graduate assistant and a summer’s worth of work from two other faculty members, the university reported.
During the bidding process, officials commissioned engineering studies, architectural designs, an economic impact report, a profit and loss analysis, a coastal risk mitigation report, a museum study and other studies.
University consultants figured the complex, if built in its entirety, would generate $25 million to $40 million in state and city tax revenue and more than $2 billion in new economic activity in its first decade.
Hawaii officials also said the library would become one of Honolulu’s top five cultural attractions, generating between $300 million and $600 million annually in new economic activity, depending on scale, and creating up to 2,000 new jobs in the development phase alone.
