Obama Center subcontractor shuts down amid $4M fight, lays off 25

Weeks after the Obama Presidential Center’s star-studded opening in Chicago, a subcontractor who previously claimed his company was stiffed for nearly $4 million has shut down operations and laid off 25 union workers.Mike Owen, the owner of Chicago-based Adamson Plumbing Contractors, told Fox News Digital that the financial fallout forced the company to abandon about half a dozen other construction jobs and left it on the verge of collapse.Owen described the shutdown as a painful decision he believed was necessary to save the company from bankruptcy."Laying off close to 30 people is something that no owner in our industry wants to do," Owen said.

"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."SUBCONTRACTORS SAY THEY’RE OWED MILLIONS, FACE FINANCIAL RUIN, AFTER HELPING BUILD OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTERAdamson Plumbing owner Mike Owen, right, says a payment dispute over work at the Obama Presidential Center forced him to suspend operations and lay off nearly 30 workers.

(Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)Adamson, which performed its work on the center under the name Marsh-Adamson, has since filed a $1.72 million mechanic’s lien against the property, escalating the payment dispute into a legal fight.The company is one of several subcontractors to report financial trouble after working on the center, which was promoted as a transformative economic opportunity for small and minority-owned businesses.A previous Fox News Digital investigation identified several subcontractors — including Black-owned firms the project was specifically intended to support — that said they were owed money or had absorbed losses ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions.The largest dispute involves the Concrete Collective, which is seeking more than $40 million in additional payment.Before the center opened, Owen said the project had left his company with $3.9 million...