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Merchandise Mart, Chicago

4.0

#10 of 28 in Shopping in Chicago

The Merchandise Mart is a commercial building located in the Near North Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. When it opened in 1930, it was the largest building in the world, with 4000000sqft of floor space. The art deco landmark is located at the junction of the Chicago River's branches. The building is a leading retailing and wholesale destination, hosting 20,000 visitors and tenants per day as of the late 2000s.Built by Marshall Field & Co. and later owned for over half a century by the Kennedy family, the Mart centralized Chicago's wholesale goods business by consolidating architectural and interior design vendors and trades under a single roof. It has since become home to several other enterprises, including the Shops at the Mart, the Chicago campus of the Illinois Institute of Art, Motorola Mobility, and the Chicago tech startup center 1871.The Merchandise Mart is so large that it had its own ZIP code until 2008, when the Postal Service assigned it to part of the surrounding area. In 2010, the building opened its Design Center showrooms to the public for the first time.

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Merchandise Mart Reviews

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TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

111 reviews

Google

4.5

By JLo5424 On November 27, 2017

Huge building with impressive history and worth a stop. People always comment when on the boat tours. more »
By giffenk On October 4, 2017

We stumbled upon this as we were out walking and decided to take a short cut through the building. There was a trade show in progress, so lots of people in fancy clothes. It was an interesting 4 minut... more »
By R G On September 24, 2017

Beautiful building. Very clean. Came here for the bridal market. Enjoyed this place. Would come back. Very convenient location to restaurants and hotels. more »

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By Jessica Avila On January 11, 2018

Went here for the One of a Kind tradeshow. Tons of people but it was a nice time. This place is huge. Easy access from the brown line though.

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By Robert A. Hansen On January 10, 2018

This is a big huge office building at Wells Street and Orleans Street and just on the North Bank of the Chicago River. I guess that used to be their headquarters for a lot of things I know that they have a lot of homeware and housewares and other furniture fashions here. It's a great place if you're a startup company I guess this is what they call it now. It's not your grandfather's Merchandise Mart. So whole new different Merchandise Mart today.

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By Jason Alzate On December 14, 2017

Very fancy stuff. At least a dozen floors dedicated to furniture displays. I couldn't actually afford anything there, but I know it all looked fancy.

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By Too Cool Jarrett On January 7, 2018

Amazing architecture. Decent food options. If you are doing high end house upgrades, this is the place.

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By Rogerio Fragale On August 13, 2017

This place has it all. Great restaurants for all tastes located on the second floor. Full service Kinko's for quick passport pictures. An awesome roof top view (not sure it is opened to the public). They even have a L train station on the second floor to get you around the loop, to Cubs games or easy access to both Chicago O'Hare international airport and Chicago Midway airport. Many iconic companies are located inside this building including Motorola. The building is so big that it has it's own zip code.

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