NeoCon remains the most important North American event for connecting and sharing the latest products and innovations in workplace design and furnishings. That does not mean NeoCon is a static event that hasn’t evolved since I first attended in 1975, or that it isn’t continuing to evolve along with workplace design and furnishings upon which it is still primarily centered.
TheMART is a multi-functioning entity owned by Vornado Realty Trust, which is traded on the New York Stock Exchange as “VNO.” Its current stock price is $33.14 and its most recent dividend announcement annualizes at approximately a 6% return.
On its website Vornado states, “theMART (formerly The Merchandise Mart), located in the center of the sought-after River North submarket, is interwoven into the fabric of Chicago as an innovator in culture, art, business, fashion, media and more. As the largest privately held commercial building in the United States, it is one of the world’s leading commercial buildings, wholesale design centers and the preeminent international business location in Chicago. Encompassing 4.2 million gross square feet, theMART spans two city blocks, rises 25 stories, and is visited by an average of 30,000 people each business day and nearly 10 million people annually. Offering continuous innovation and creativity from leading manufacturers and showrooms, theMART serves as a business hub for interior designers, architects, contractors, business owners and buyers, and recently has become home to Chicago’s most creative and technologically innovative companies including Motorola Mobility, 1871, Yelp, PayPal and MATTER, as well as Fortune 500 companies Conagra, Allstate, Kellogg, Beam Suntory, and Grainger.”
Our subject here is the trade show NeoCon which is owned by theMART and given that fact has been the subject of considerable Chicken Little sky falling since four or five large – and important to our industry – companies have relocated from theMART to West Fulton Street (MillerKnoll, Teknion, Tarkett). It’s probably fair to state that I am an unabashed lover of NeoCon, so you may factor my bias in to whatever you read below.
The sky is not falling and yes, we will meet an important slice of our industry next week at NeoCon 2022. I’m sure theMART would have preferred that those companies renewed their leases and continued their role as anchor tenants along with Steelcase, Haworth, the HNI companies and Global. But real estate is real estate and trade shows are trade shows.
I remember a time in the 70s when several of the important Italian brands that have showrooms in via Durini decided not to participate in Salone del Mobile.Milano. So after spending most of the day at Salone we would take the subway to center city, exiting at San Babila and walking over to via Durini. So many of us did so that other businesses caught on and started opening their showrooms and stores during the week of Salone. That trend eventually led to what is now Fuorisalone (translation: outside salone) and ultimately to Milan Design Week – now major parts of the attraction to Salone del Mobile.Milano itself.
Oh, and by the way, the reason everybody goes to Milan during that week is Salone itself. I’m not at all sure how many people would travel there for Milan Design Week and of course without Salone there could be no fuorisalone. And now in the 2020s Cassina and B&B and Flos and the Via Durini gang are all back at the trade show as well as welcoming Salone visitors to their showrooms in via Durini during Milan Design Week.
So, my point is that successful trade shows such as Salone del Mobile.Milano and NeoCon are big enough and serve the strategic interests of enough companies that they will always survive the departure (whether temporary or not) of important exhibitors. And exhibitors will always make real estate decisions based on their own strategies, which of course involve a calculus concerning the important trade shows in their industry. And history is well known to repeat itself, so this year coinciding with NeoCon we’ve had announcements and invitations to visit real estate tenants at 800 West Fulton Street, 343 and 345 N. Wells Street, and other locations where important industry companies have showrooms and hope to ride the coattails of NeoCon. And frankly, just as we did in the 70s we will trek to those locations to visit, see and learn. But make no mistake – the reason I’ll be in Chicago along with 40,000 or so other people in the commercial interior design fields next week is NeoCon 2022.
What I love about NeoCon is the excitement of seeing industry friends packed into the halls and showrooms and the overall sense of our industry as a community. I like the sheer number of companies and the density of products designed, developed and on display that are focused on the workplace.
Last week I had a Zoom interview with Byron Morton, vp of leasing and Lisa Simonian, vp of marketing for NeoCon to see how they were feeling about this year’s 53rd iteration of NeoCon.
I first asked Byron to address the impact of the real estate moves on NeoCon. He said, “We would have loved it if those who moved out had stayed, but we’re realistic enough to know that tenants will move out sometimes. But here’s the thing, theMART remains the design destination in Chicago whether it’s during NeoCon or year-round. Those who have moved out have traded the cohesive environment of theMART for a New York-like situation with showrooms in office buildings and no cohesive design-oriented center of gravity.
“The other real interesting data point that we like to focus on is that in the last in two years we’ve done 350,000 sq. ft. of showroom leasing in theMART. We’ve renewed key anchors across all industries and in our industry both Steelcase and Haworth are committed to theMART. In 2021 we brought 11 new, exciting companies into theMART; many of them European. So we feel really confident about the future of the showroom business and the future of NeoCon.
“We’re committed enough that right after NeoCon we’ll be “breaking ground” on three major construction projects worth about $40 million in total. These include further improvements to the River Drive Park (yet again), a 27,000 sq. ft. conference and tenant amenity center, and we’re going to upgrade and develop the entrance at the north east corner of the building to be our front door to the River North.”
Lisa Simonian, who is responsible in large measure for the speakers, keynotes and special programming added, “We’re referring to this evolution of the building as theMART 2.0, with Gensler as our collaborating design firm. On Monday afternoon at 2:00 pm, Lily Diego, Design Director and Todd Heiser, Managing Director and Principal at Gensler will discuss and present the plans for the three projects. Their presentation will be in the second-floor presentation studio and live-streamed on the NeoCon Hub.”
From my conversation with Mr. Morton and Ms. Simonian I got a sense of how hard the team at theMART has worked to deliver a really great trade show featuring interesting Keynotes and a dazzling line-up of speakers and CEU courses to wrap around the showrooms and exhibition spaces full of the latest designs. If you haven’t already, I urge you to visit the NeoCon Website for a thorough rundown of the amazing smorgasbord of NeoCon events.
