Newark, Ohio: World's Largest Basket

Custom-built in 1997 for Longaberger Co., office building sold to developer Dec. 2017. No matter how menial your tasks or incompetent your management, work won't seem that bad inside a seven-story-tall basket.

People thought that Dave Longaberger was crazy when he spent $32 million to headquarter his designer basket business in a building shaped like a giant basket. The grand opening was December 17, 1997 - and business was booming. Longaberger believed that people would go on buying high-end gift baskets forever. They didn't; sales tanked, and the company departed from its signature structure in 2016. The basket has stood empty ever since, but from the street it remains a unique seven-story tall landmark, and a majestic monument to one man's faith in baskets.

The plans to convert the Longaberger Company HQ building into a hotel and conference center have not materialized. The owner has put the giant basket back on the market for a cool $6.5 million. Don't know what the inside looks like, but the campus is overgrown and pretty rough. Hopefully someone can step up and bring the place back to life.

Big announcement from Longaberger about the future of the historic basket building in Newark: The owner plans to turn the building into a hotel.

The giant basket building will no longer be home to Longaberger, leaving its future in question. But on the hopeful side, if anyone is looking to own a giant basket-shaped office building, it's a buyer's market!