Merchandise Mart “walks the walk”
June 4th, 2008 | Posted by Tandus NeoCon Team
Sustainability is a huge theme at this year’s NeoCon as seen with the plethora of new products, seminars and association forums. Interestingly, the monstrosity that houses it all, the Merchandise Mart, achieved a major green milestone of its own since last year’s NeoCon. In November, the world’s largest commercial building was awarded a LEED Existing Building Silver certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.
In fact, Chris Kennedy, president of Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. was quoted in Commercial Property News as saying that NeoCon was a big part of why the Mart, built in 1930, went green.
“As the home to NeoCon, for the past 15 years we’ve been running this conference relating to green design,” said Kennedy, “so there was a lot of pressure to walk the walk.”
He cites other reasons as well: tenants wanted a green supply chain and Kennedy’s brother, noted environmental lawyer Robert Kennedy Jr., exerted some fraternal pressure. As a side note, Kennedy family patriarch Joseph Kennedy purchased the building in 1945 and held on to it for 50 years until it was purchased by current owner, Vornado Realty Trust.