DOGE Shuts Down Obama Library Site, Relocates Presidential Records
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has terminated the lease for a facility that housed records from former President Barack Obama’s administration.
The location of the site in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, was part of the National Archives and Records Administration’s (NARA) system for preserving presidential materials.
The move is part of DOGE’s initiative to reduce wasteful government spending, adding to a long list of nearly 750 lease cancellations ordered by the agency.
The Hoffman Estates facility contained approximately 25 million unclassified paper documents and 35,000 physical Obama-era artifacts.
The material will now be digitized and sent to a NARA site in College Park, Maryland, by the end of Fiscal Year 2025.
The Hoffman Estates site managed records from the Obama administration while the Obama Presidential Center, which is set to open next year, is under construction on Chicago’s South Side.
The foundation said it does not operate as a traditional presidential library with a NARA-managed archive.
Terminating the lease is part of DOGE’s broader strategy to reassess the federal government’s real estate portfolio.
According to Trepp Inc. data, the General Services Administration (GSA)—which oversees leased federal spaces and government-owned property—spends over $91 million per year for 2.4 million square feet of office space spread across 112 Chicago properties.
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Trepp’s senior manager of research, Tom Taylor, said the government also has the option to terminate over a third of these leases by year’s end, withdrawing around $30 million annually from local property owners.
“In a market that’s already contending with large shifts in demand from the influence of remote work, changing the office demand paradigm, any large-scale GSA terminations could really exacerbate the existing problems with vacancy and office values in that market,” Taylor noted.
Last month, President Donald Trump announced plans to sell off approximately 50 federal buildings in Northern California, including one named after former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Trump is also set to eliminate the Presidio Trust, a federal agency that manages the 1,500-acre park, as part of efforts to cut federal spending.
The Trust was referenced in Trump’s executive order titled “Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy.”
“The non-statutory components and functions of the following governmental entities shall be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law, and such entities shall reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law,” the order states before listing the Presidio Trust.
Former U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) slammed Trump’s decision to sell the building, accusing him of “targeting” Democrats.
“It’s another example of how he is coming after Democrats. He’s coming after California, and it’s all about payback,” she said.
The move emphasizes DOGE’s rapid cost-cutting initiatives as the Trump administration continues downsizing government operations wherever possible.
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