Are Chip and Joanna Gaines Moving Their Magnolia Headquarters?
You’d think that by now fans would be used to Chip and Joanna Gaines renovating new spaces, but still, their latest news came as a bit of a surprise. Just a couple years after buying and renovating former grain silos and transforming the abandoned property into a thriving retail space, the renovating duo is at it again.
Where will their new headquarters be located?
For those of you hoping that Chip and Joanna will expand beyond their home base in Texas, sadly this is not the time. Their potential new Magnolia headquarters location is close to their current one and still located in Waco. Actually, it’ll help employees get some exercise since it’s a walkable 5 blocks away. But this new space bigger — and in need of a refresh.
News of their new digs broke when Chip and Joanna made a $1.1 million offer on a gigantic three-floor building in the downtown section of Waco. The Waco Tribune-Herald reports that turning the Grand Karem Shrine Building at 701 Washington into Magnolia headquarters will add a much-needed destination attraction to downtown.
“We’re contemplating how to make it work as our new headquarters,” Chip said. “We haven’t closed on the property, but we’re seriously considering it.”
The Silos will get a makeover, too
Nothing is set in stone just yet, but if the couple does decide to move headquarters, it will give the Gaineses more space to move on the next phase of the current Magnolia Market at the Silos. They want to open a store that’s catered to men specifically selling T-shirts, hammers, leather goods, and other “guy-dominated stuff.” For now, they’re planning to call the new space, “Chip’s Corner.”
It’s all helping business development and tourism in Waco
Right now, Magnolia Market at the Silos draws in visitors exceeding 30,000 people per week. The other thing they’re doing? Convincing people to move there. There are Baylor grads and people who had never heard of Waco previously coming to either visit the store or contemplate moving to the area just because Chip and Joanna Gaines made it popular. As Chip explained to the Tribune, “Many are first-time guests to Waco, Texas, but others are second-timers coming back for various reasons. We know of people moving to town who say, ‘We saw your show, we saw Baylor, and we’re deciding to call Waco home.’ We played a small role, but the reality is we’re turning the page. We had a baby boy about three months ago, and life changes.”
This probably won’t be their last project
The number of businesses and side projects that Chip and Joanna Gains currently have is impressive. They may have stopped filming on their hit show Fixer Upper, the catalyst to their rise to fame, but it’s not like they’re sitting around twiddling their thumbs. Besides owning and operating Magnolia Market at the Silos, which Chip says he visits in person “a few times per week,” the Gaineses also own Magnolia Table restaurant and recently reopened the original Magnolia store as a discount emporium. They also have multiple books, a furniture line, a quarterly magazine, and collaborations with big brands such as Target.
It’s a Magnolia world and we’re all just living in it.
