In presenting three possible sites for consideration prior to winning the Obama Presidential Center, the University of Chicago’s consultants acknowledged the Washington Park neighborhood’s superiority.  By contrast, the current site in Jackson Park will clearly struggle to deliver the promised economic gains to disadvantaged city residents.

Given the influx of new demand that would occur if the Obama Library [sic] were built at this [Washington Park neighborhood] location and the affordability of local properties, we would expect to see a significant amount of development occur near this site…

Of all the proposed sites, this one [at Washington Park] would most amenably accommodate new businesses and investment that might come in to the area.

-- Anderson Economic Group, April 25, 2014 report to the University of Chicago  

It stands to reason that maximum economic development does not occur on building sites such as the one chosen by the Obama Foundation.  The land is surrounded on three sides by a public park.  Remaining frontage consists of the Midway Plaisance (another public parkway), low-rise residential townhouses, and a public high school.  Furthermore, there is very little available land in the immediate vicinity with zoning to accommodate new economic activity (see the following slide).  The few available nearby sites with business or commercial zoning are already controlled by powerful economic interests, and the benefits on a neighborhood scale therefore will be limited.

The Washington Park site pairs the greatest need with the greatest opportunity... It is an opportunity to provide a model of urban revitalization, a legacy of local change that could have global impact.

-- The University of Chicago
   A Place of Possibility: The Response to the RFQ (Chicago: Self-published, 2014).