CHICAGO — The Barack Obama Foundation plans to locate the future Barack Obama Presidential Center, which will include a museum, library, as well as office space for Foundation activities and events, in the South Side of Chicago. The site was selected over bids made by Columbia University in New York, the University of Hawaii and the University of Illinois at Chicago. The library is expected create hundreds of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars a year in economic activity, according to Crain’s Chicago Business. A date for the development has not been announced. As a future neighbor and collaborator on the Center, the University of Chicago has pledged to make resources and infrastructure available to the Foundation in the near term for its planning and development work. The Foundation also intends to maintain a presence at Columbia University for the purpose of exploring and developing opportunities for a long-term association, and to work with the state of Hawaii to establish a lasting presence in Honolulu. Within Chicago, the Obama Foundation will additionally explore possible collaboration with the University of Illinois–Chicago.
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