In 1985, the building was finally sold to investment banker C.L. Carr, who initially pledged to keep the building open as an entertainment complex, but later attempted to sell parcels of the land beneath it. Last-ditch efforts to salvage the enormous building—as an international trade center for the People's Republic of China, as a venue for the cancelled 1992 World's Fair, even as a Major League Baseball stadium for the Chicago White Sox—all failed, and the building was demolished in the spring of 1986.