Published rental range: $150,000 - $300,000+
A 40x40 island is a headline pavilion, 1,600 square feet that makes your brand the gravitational center of the McCormick Place floor and gives a market leader the canvas to do absolutely everything at once. This is the largest standard island we build, and at this scale the project is a full architectural and production undertaking: a pavilion with a commanding entry, four or more enclosed meeting rooms, a seated presentation theater wrapped in a large-format LED wall, a hospitality lounge and bar zone, expansive open product and demonstration areas, and, where the show and hall permit, an engineered double deck that adds an elevated meeting or viewing level and effectively doubles your usable program. Headline exhibitors choose a 40x40 to own the narrative at the biggest Chicago events, IMTS, RSNA, PACK EXPO, and the National Restaurant Association Show, where a pavilion of this magnitude signals category leadership from the moment attendees enter the hall. We engineer the structure as fully custom architecture, integrating dimensional forms, finished millwork, backlit and dimensional logos, and a flagship media system, while preserving enough modular logic that the asset remains a rentable, reconfigurable program rather than a single-use build. A large structural hanging sign anchors your location across the entire hall, and consistent with Chicago best practice we keep the ceilings open and avoid heavy truss so even at this scale the pavilion feels premium, bright, and walkable rather than industrial. The media package is the most ambitious of any size: a massive central LED wall for the theater, distributed screens across rooms and demo pods, integrated audio, content management, and digital wayfinding, all with power, data, and cooling engineered into the structure and fully tested before show open. Every graphic is produced in-house with large-format silicone edge fabric, dye-sublimation, dimensional elements, and backlighting so the pavilion photographs as a hero asset for your marketing. Operationally a 40x40 runs like a building: scheduled theater sessions to large crowds, simultaneous private executive meetings, continuous live demonstrations, dedicated lead capture, and full hospitality, sustained across a multi-day show. The published rental range of $150,000 to $300,000+ reflects the enormous configurability: the base covers a single-level headline pavilion with four-plus rooms, a theater, and a large media wall, while the upper band adds an engineered double deck, expanded hospitality, premium materials throughout, and a flagship media system. A pavilion of this size carries the most substantial McCormick Place rigging, electrical, multi-day install labor, and, for a double deck, engineered drawings and permits, all of which we plan and manage against targeted and general move-in windows with a full pre-show staging review. Expect a twelve-to-sixteen-week lead time and a three-to-four-day install with an eight-to-ten-person crew. Renting a 40x40 keeps a multi-hundred-thousand-dollar asset off your balance sheet, removes the burden of storing and maintaining a large structure, and lets you headline with a fresh design every year while we refurbish and store the system between Chicago shows. Request a free 3D rendering and we will design your headline pavilion from the ground up.
A 40x40 island trade show exhibit rental in Chicago is published at $150,000 to $300,000+. The base covers a single-level headline pavilion with four-plus rooms, a theater, and a large media wall; the upper band adds a double deck, expanded hospitality, and a flagship media system.
Yes. At 1,600 square feet a double deck is feasible where the show and hall permit it, adding an elevated meeting or viewing level above the floor. Double decks require engineered drawings, permits, and additional rigging and labor, which we manage end to end.
Plan on three to four days with an eight-to-ten-person crew, plus engineering and permitting lead time for any elevated deck. We schedule the full build against the show's targeted and general move-in windows.
Reserve twelve to sixteen weeks before move-in. A headline pavilion needs the longest runway for design, engineering, permitting, fabrication, media integration, and a full pre-show staging review.
It often does. Renting a flagship pavilion keeps a multi-hundred-thousand-dollar asset off your books, removes the burden of storing and maintaining a large structure, and lets you headline with a fresh design each year while we refurbish and store the system.
Call Chicago Exhibits at (872) 369-0187 for a free 48-hour 3D rendering. Serving Chicago and McCormick Place since 2014.