A Chicago plumbing subcontractor who poured years of work into the Barack Obama Presidential Center has suspended operations and laid off 25 union workers after being left nearly $4 million in the hole, just weeks after the star-studded grand opening of Barack Obama's monument to himself.

Mike Owen, owner of Adamson Plumbing Contractors (which performed work under the name Marsh-Adamson), told Fox News the financial devastation from delays, endless design changes, rework, and unpaid invoices forced him to abandon roughly half a dozen other jobs and push the company to the brink of collapse.

He described the decision as painful but necessary to avoid outright bankruptcy.

"It was in the company's best interest to suspend all operations. Moving forward until we could get back on solid financial ground. It was not an easy decision to make. Laying off close to 30 people is something that no owner in our industry wants to do," Owen said.

"We actually had about a half a dozen other projects that I had to make the decision and walk away from. 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, and I also felt that the responsible thing to do was to talk to those other clients, explain the situation, and just say, "It's best if we allow another contractor to come in and finish."

The company suspended operations on June 25, mere days after the center's June 19 public opening.

Owen filed a $1.72 million mechanic's lien against the Jackson Park property covering the most clearly documented losses. He says the total hit tied to the project runs closer to $3.9 million.

The breaking point came around the glitzy opening. Adamson had agreed to supply plumbers for last-minute overnight work in exchange for a partial payment. The money didn't arrive on time. Later partial payments, Owen said, were "too little, too late."

"We negotiated to have two journeymen work for two weeks at night, so that's premium time. On top of that, they also agreed to provide what came out to roughly 25% of our retention as our agreement to do the work.

"They verified it via email, went ahead and asked us to revise our May billing, which we did, and we went and had our vendor waivers procured. So, really, all we were waiting for was for the money to hit the bank, and it never happened.