Merchandise Mart CEO Christopher Kennedy on Friday disputed published reports that the massive commercial property was on the market.
"They have not shopped this around," Kennedy said of Vornado Realty Trust, the firm that bought the building from the political family in 1998.
A statement from the company, Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc., was more explicit:
"Allusions and rumors regarding MMPI being offered for sale are erroneous and therefore unhelpful to those involved with our business and to the ongoing, successful relationships which have defined our decades-long history in Chicago and throughout our properties," it said, according to a report on the website Trade Show News Network.
Word that the property was on the market was first published last Saturday in Crain's Chicago Business. According to the report, Vornado received an unsolicited $1.25 billion offer for the mart and other Kennedy-run facilities around the country, but that the deal fell through. Those other properties include the L.A. Mart in Los Angeles and the Boston Design Center.
Kennedy declined to discuss that when questioned by the Chicago Sun-Times, but said a publicly traded company such as Vornado must examine offers that promise a reasonable return.
Kennedy is a son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
