Industrial park pioneer Marshall Bennett dies

Real estate pioneer Marshall Bennett, who teamed up with the Pritzker family to develop what would be the nation’s largest industrial park, died Saturday at his Gold Coast home. He was 97.

Bennett and longtime business partner Louis Kahnweiler joined forces with the Pritzker family and Centex Corp. in 1957 to develop the Centex Industrial Park in Elk Grove Village, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, which reported his death. That 2,250-acre facility would become the nation’s largest and would eventually serve 1,500 companies.

Bennett — who grew up in Chicago — and Kahnweiler developed thousands of acres of industrial parks across the country before Bennett left the firm in 1982. Kahnweiler died last year, also at 97.

“Marshall helped develop the industrial market in Chicago,” former U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker told the Sun-Times. “When you think of logistics, warehouses and distribution, Marshall helped bring that into the 20th century in the greater Chicago area.”

After a kayaking accident forced him to step back from the firm in the 1970s, he began hosting annual dinners for real estate industry leaders at his home in Sun Valley, Idaho. The popular event would go on to be known as the Marshall Bennett Classic.

Bennett, a World War II Navy veteran who was later inducted into the Chicago Board of Realtors Hall of Fame, was on the board of the East-West Institute global think tank. He also co-founded the Chicago Ten, an interfaith group that worked for peace in the Middle East. In addition, he co-founded Roosevelt University’s Marshall Bennett Institute of Real Estate in 2002. [Chicago Sun-Times] — John O’Brien