Editing Merchandise Mart (section)

===Ownership===
The Merchandise Mart opened on May 5, 1930, just east of Chicago's original [[trading post]], [[Wolf Point, Chicago|Wolf Point]].<ref name="OfficeRetail">{{cite web| url=http://www.merchandisemart.com/officeretail/about.html| access-date=2007-07-19| title=Merchandise Mart Office Retail| publisher=merchandisemart.com| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061025004147/http://www.merchandisemart.com/officeretail/about.html| archive-date=2006-10-25}}</ref>

The building realized Marshall Field’s dream of a single wholesale center for the nation and consolidated 13 different warehouses. It was purchased in 1945 or 1946<ref name="NPNLFtO">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/16/garden/new-pieces-new-looks-for-the-office.html?|title=New Pieces, New Looks For the Office|access-date=July 13, 2010|date=June 16, 1998|author=Giovannini, Joseph|work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref><ref name=CKCTPTWOTOFB>{{cite news|author=Feuerstein, Phyllis|title=Christopher Kennedy Chicago's The Place To Work On The Other Family Business|date=August 22, 1993|page=8|work=[[Chicago Tribune]]}}</ref> by the [[Kennedy family]] through Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc. (MMPI), and managed by [[Sargent Shriver]]. Kennedy's purchase price was reported to be either $12.5 or $13 million,<ref>{{Cite news|title=CHICAGO MART GETS LOAN; $12,500,000 Mortgage Is Placed With Equitable Assurance| work=The New York Times |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1945/08/06/113127328.html?pageNumber=25|access-date=2020-10-08|language=en}}</ref> and it is said that his initial capital was $1 million, though records say his original mortgage was $12.5 million, roughly half of what it had cost to construct the complex.<ref name=Langton/>

E. Stanley Klein, a good friend of Marshall Field and Joseph Kennedy, brokered the building's sale. At the time Klein was a partner of Field and together they started Fieldcrest Mills.<ref>{{Cite news|title=BIG 'MART' BOUGHT BY JOSEPH KENNEDY; Chicago's Merchandise Block Is Purchased From Marshall Field's| work=The New York Times |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1945/07/22/94857614.html?pageNumber=32|access-date=2020-10-08|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=E. STANLEY KLEIN, 82, OF J.P. MAGUIRE & CO.| work=The New York Times |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1976/02/09/75573815.html?pageNumber=30|access-date=2020-10-08|language=en}}</ref> Klein maintained that Kennedy's bargain price was predicated on an oral agreement between Field and Kennedy that after the sale the building would be donated to the University of Chicago and that Kennedy would take the tax deduction.{{fact|date=March 2021}} No documentary evidence of this agreement exists.

The building revenues became a principal source of Kennedy family wealth, often used for political campaign funding.<ref name=Langton/>

In 1998 the Kennedys sold the property to [[Vornado Realty Trust]] as part of a larger $625&nbsp;million (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|.625|1998|r=1}}}} billion in current dollars) transaction.<ref name=kennedysale>{{cite news|title=Kennedy Family Selling Merchandise Mart To Vornado Realty|date=January 26, 1998|work=[[Chicago Tribune]]|page=3}}</ref> When it was sold, the Merchandise Mart was also the Kennedy family's last remaining operating business.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB885768544663024500|title=The Kennedy Clan Decides To Cash In Last Big Business|first1=Mitchell|last1=Pacelle|first2=David D.|last2=Kirkpatrick|first3=Calmetta Y.|last3=Coleman|publisher=Wall Street Journal|date=January 26, 1998|accessdate=May 4, 2021}}</ref> That year, Vornado acquired MMPI for $450 million cash and a $100 million-plus stake in Vornado.<ref>{{cite web| date=January 26, 1998| url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1998/01/26/kennedy-family-selling-merchandise-mart-to-vornado-realty/| title=Kennedy Family Selling Merchandise Mart To Vornado Realty| work=[[Chicago Tribune]]| agency=[[Bloomberg News]]}}</ref><ref name="Emporis">{{cite web| url=http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=merchandisemart-chicago-il-usa| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061209162216/http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=merchandisemart-chicago-il-usa| url-status=usurped| archive-date=December 9, 2006| access-date=2007-07-19| title=Merchandise Mart, Chicago| publisher=[[Emporis]]}}</ref> As of 2007, the building was valued at $917 million.<ref name="crains1">{{cite web| first=Thomas A.| last=Corfman| date=February 21, 2007|  url=http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20070221/NEWS12/200023946/merchandise-marts-value-soars-in-9-years| access-date=2016-02-17| title=Merchandise Mart's value soars in 9 years| work=[[Crain Communications|Crain's Chicago Business]]}}</ref>