Reality TV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines to use newspaper building as headquarters

Reality TV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines are planning to use a newspaper building to house their lifestyle brand headquarters, The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday.

Representatives of their lifestyle brand, Magnolia, informed city officials last week that they would move into the Waco Tribune-Herald building, a few blocks from the company’s store in a nearby shopping district.

Magnolia plans to spend $13.6 million on renovating the three story, 110,00-square-foot building which housed the newspaper for 70 years.

According to the Dallas Morning News, the Tribune-Herald staff will move to a new building downtown.

The Magnolia brand will add 200 employees from various locations to the building by 2022.

The couple made news in Washington a few years ago when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) accused them of violating federal regulations for mishandling lead-based paint.

Magnolia Homes agreed to pay a $40,000 fine to the EPA and complete $160,000 of lead abatement work around their hometown of Waco, among other measures, as part of the settlement with the federal government. The company did not admit to any of the allegations made by the EPA.