The Longaberger Basket Building's history and future
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The basket's welcome area offers a time capsule of what once was. Photos: Andrew King/Axios
The Longaberger Basket Building opened as the company's Newark headquarters in 1997, welcoming hundreds of employees.
Flashback: The $30 million building was the crown jewel of founder Dave Longaberger's empire, founded in 1973 in nearby Dresden.
- By its peak in 2000, revenue reached $1 billion and Longaberger employed more than 8,000 people.
By the numbers: The 180,000-square-foot basket sits on 21.5 acres.
- The building is 160 times larger than the "medium" life-sized basket.
- It was designed to hold more than 500 employees.
- In addition to a 555-spot parking lot, there are 25 heated, underground parking spaces.
- It has 84 windows.
In 1999, the company created its own miniature town in nearby Frazeysburg.
- The world's largest apple basket still sits on the unused property.
Catch up quick: Dave died that year, and his daughter Tami took over as CEO and president.
- By 2013, the company was struggling but still employing hundreds, and Tami sold to a conglomerate. As the company fizzled, many were laid off in the next few years.
- In 2018, Longaberger suspended operations and its parent company filed for bankruptcy.
- It was revived as part of the Xcel Brands portfolio, with an online shop.
As for the building, the basket sold for $1.2 million in 2017 to a group led by Northeast Ohio's Steve Coon, owner of Coon Restoration.
- Coon had "a big vision" to restore and redevelop it.
- Those plans were derailed by the pandemic and shuttered when Coon's son died suddenly in 2023.
Coon agreed to sell the building to a Florida businessman in 2022, but the deal was canceled.
- A lawsuit was filed alleging that Coon didn't meet obligations to clean and maintain the property.
Trying to sell
The basket is up for sale once again, now for $8.5 million.
Between the handles: Selling a multimillion-dollar basket building isn't easy, especially when it's required to remain a basket.
Zoom in: Brandon Hess, partner at Shai-Hess Commercial Real Estate, has worked on the property for a decade, and sold it to Coon.
- It's now a "passion" project that he loves showing off.
- "It definitely blows people's minds," he tells Axios.
Yes, but: It's also "a huge challenge" to find a buyer.
- There have been lots of near-purchases over the years, lots of calls to potential investors and lots of ideas on what to do with it — though nothing has stuck.
- "It attracts all kinds of people. You have to weed through who the real buyers are and who they aren't," says Hess.
Behind the scenes: He estimates it costs upward of $150,000 a year just to maintain the building and property.
- The huge basket handles, for instance, need to be heated in the winter.
The big picture: Despite the challenges, Hess and his team feel a responsibility not just to Coon but to Dave Longaberger.
- "To me, making sure we find a good use in Dave's memory is a huge thing."
- Hess says Coon will only sell the building to someone who wants it to remain a basket.
The last word: "Any other building would definitely be falling apart in many ways, but the way Dave built things, there was no cut of any expense. He built things right, and it's absolutely amazing."