Basket Building and move its employees to Longaberger's factory in Frazeysburg, Ohio. As of April 2016, there were fewer than 75 full-time and part-time employees; about 30 of those still made baskets. On May 4, 2018, a note was sent out from a sales force supervisor that the company had ceased operations. In June 2018, the company filed for bankruptcy. The Longaberger brand was revived in 2019 when its intellectual property was purchased by Xcel Brands, led by Robert W. D'Loren, and a licensing agreement was reached with basket-weavers Dresden & Co. Tami Longaberger and her sister took part in the firm's re-launch. D'Loren stopped selling baskets through home parties and rebranded the company to include artisan home goods, furniture, food products, and other items. He also focused on digital marketing through social media. Basket building In the 1990s, Longaberger commissioned NBBJ and Korda Nemeth Engineering to build an unusual headquarters on a 21.5-acre lot in eastern Newark: a seven-story building that would resemble one of the company's baskets. The 180,000-square-foot building, located near the intersection of Route 16 and Ohio Route 146, was difficult to design and build because the upper floors were wider than the floors below them; for example, the second floor has 20,000 square feet and the top floor has to 25,000 square feet. The basket handles weigh almost 150 tons and can be heated during cold weather to prevent ice from falling onto the building's glass roof. The building opened in 1997. The company stopped paying property taxes on the building at the end of 2014. Employees moved out in 2016. In December 2017, the building was purchased for $1.2 million by Steve Coon, a Canton, Ohio-based developer who owns Coon Restoration, and his partner, Bobby George of Cleveland. By November 2018, the pair had put it up for sale. In 2019, Coon said the building had not sold, that he was planning to turn the building into a luxury hotel, and that he was working to have the building added to the National Register of Historic Places. On October 20, 2019, Heritage Ohio – the state's official historic preservation organization – held the first tour of the building since its 2016 closing as part of fundraising efforts. More than 600 people participated. Executive director Joyce Barrett said, “People were in tears and hugging each other” because "they were so happy to be back in