Look at this thing. The Merchandise Mart. When it opened in 1930, it was the largest building in the world. Four million square feet. Two full city blocks. It held that record until the Pentagon was built in 1943. It has its own ZIP code. It had its own stop on the L train. This building is so big it needed its own government services.
Marshall Field & Company built it as a wholesale goods center — a place where retailers from across the country could come see products from hundreds of manufacturers all in one building. It was basically Amazon, but you had to take a train to Chicago and walk around for three days.
But here's where the story gets REALLY interesting — in 1945, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. — yes, THAT Kennedy family — bought the Merchandise Mart for about $12.5 million. The building was underperforming, nobody wanted it, and Old Joe saw an opportunity.
He turned it around. Made it profitable. Held onto it. And in 1998, the Kennedy family sold the Merchandise Mart for $625 mil
lion. That's one of the greatest real estate investments in American history. They made FIFTY TIMES their money. The profit from this one building helped fund decades of Kennedy political campaigns.
The building is Art Deco, designed by the firm Graham, Anderson, Probst & White — the same architects who did the Wrigley Building. Look at the clean vertical lines, the limestone facade, the setbacks
