HYDE PARK — Chicago could get 1,900 new jobs and a $220 million jolt in new economic activity if the University of Chicago gets the Barack Obama Presidential Library, according to a report issued Monday.
The report by Anderson Economic Group, which was hired by the university to look into the benefits of putting the library on the South Side, found that 800,000 people could be expected to visit the library every year.
“It is possible that other private development or infrastructure improvements that complement the Obama Presidential Library would result in an even greater and more localized economic impact,” the report says.
The report is the latest in steps in the university’s bid to get Obama to build his library close to the university where he was once a lecturer at the law school.
Internally, close friends of the Obamas, like university trustee John W. Rogers Jr., chairman and CEO of Ariel Investments and a Kenwood resident, are working to get the South Side picked for the library over competitors in New York and Hawaii.
The university is trying to persuade the Obama Library Foundation, helmed by Martin Nesbitt, also a Kenwood resident and a friend of the Obamas, to pick the South Side.
“We’re completely open-minded about what we might get back,” Nesbitt told the Associated Press in March. “We haven't ruled in anything or ruled out anything.”
The deadline for proposals for the location of the library is June 16.
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