CHICAGO—Barack Obama’s new presidential center isn’t a cheap date, and neither is his adopted hometown.

When it opens June 19, it will set at least three modernera records for a former White House occupant: time taken to be completed, project cost and the price to get inside.

At $30, adult admission to see the 44th president’s story is more than at any other U.S. presidential library, a Wall Street Journal review shows. That is 59% higher than the average for presidents from John F. Kennedy through George W. Bush.

The top admission for the Obama Presidential Center is in keeping with the record expense of the project in a city known for complex and costly urban development, steep taxes and premium cultural attractions.

Chicago is certain to become a Democratic mecca for those eager to reconnect with their party’s most popular living former president. The center is expected to attract approximately 700,000 visitors annually and be an economic engine for the city, while also potentially helping transform the surrounding lower-income neighborhood.

The crowds and fundraising success (the Obama Foundation has disclosed donors of $1,001 or more) contrast with the struggles of the next Democratic president after Obama.

Former President Joe Biden has gotten off to a slow fundraising start for a center in Delaware, with some donors saying raising the necessary funds will be a heavy lift given how his presidency ended.

While the Obama project was initially estimated at $300 million, the final price tag hit about $850 million. The 19.3-acre campus includes a museum, foundation offices, a public library and recreational spaces.

Roughly $500 million was raised for the most recently built presidential shrine, the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Dallas.

Illinois residents, who helped underwrite some infrastructure costs, will get in free on Tuesdays and receive a $4 discount other days.

“Our campus is free and open to the public, with the exception of the four floors of the museum,” said Emily Bittner, a foundation spokeswoman. “We offer tremendous new amenities that no other presidential center provides, like an NBA-regulation-size basketball court, two-level playground, recording studio, classroom spaces and more than two dozen newly commissioned pieces of public art.”

Admission is in line with other major Chicago attractions. The Kenneth C. Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, not far away on the city’s South Side, is $25.95 for an adult. The Adler Planetarium is $25, while the Art Institute of Chicago is $32.

The Obama center’s opening is roughly five years behind what was originally planned after preservationists and activists slowed construction in court. Pandemic-related disruptions also delayed work.

Presidential libraries opened in recent decades in about half the time as this one, Wall Street Journal calculations show. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library opened just more than 1,000 days after he left office. Bill Clinton’s took 1,398 days. The libraries of George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush averaged 1,653 days. Obama’s is set for 3,437 days.

Obama’s center won’t technically be a library. Instead, his foundation is paying $5 million to support digitizing millions of pages of unclassified records for online use. It will be run by the foundation rather than the National Archives and Records Administration, the federal agency that traditionally operates the libraries and museums.