Report: Google lease makes sale of Chicago's Merchandise Mart more likely

Furniture Today Staff -- Casual Living, 7/31/2012 11:45:40 AM

CHICAGO — The venerable Merchandise Mart, home to a pair of major furniture industry trade shows, could be sold now that a Google subsidiary has agreed to lease 572,000 square feet of the historic structure, according to a website maintained by Crain's Chicago Business.

The web site, ChicagoRealEstateDaily.com, quoted several real estate consultants who believe the timing is right for the Mart's owner, Vornado Realty Trust, to sell the historic structure.

The story didn't speculate about the effects of a sale on the Mart's two major furniture industry shows - the Neocon contract furniture show and the Casual Furniture Market.

The Mart and an unfinished medical complex in Cleveland are the only properties remaining from a Vornado-owned portfolio called Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. that also once included more than 2 million square feet of showroom space in downtown High Point. Those properties were sold in 2011 as part of a deal that put more than 60% of High Point's showroom space and the World Market Center in Las Vegas under the common ownership of International Market Centers.

Earlier this month, Vornado sold most of its remaining MMPI properties, including the Washington Design Center, L.A. Mart and Boston Design Center.

Click here to read the ChicagoRealEstateDaily.com story.