Attention eccentric millionaires: You could own a seven-storey building shaped like a picnic basket for $6.45M

Standing three-storeys high and stretching 180,000 square feet, there’s nothing portable or dainty about this picnic basket.

But for $6.45 million the structure, which once served as an office building and headquarters for the Longaberger Company, impractical as it may be, can be yours to fill with thousands of pounds charcuterie, cheese, fruits and veggies, or whatever other wacky activity you can do with massive building that looks like a picnic basket.

The basket building, as its known to locals who live near its resting place about 60 kilometres outside of Columbus, Ohio, was put up for sale 18 months ago for $9.67 million, but has struggled to find a buyer and its price tag was dropped to its current ask of $6.45 million, or about $36 per square foot.

At that price, the basket building is a bargain compared to what other office buildings in the area usually fetch.

Its listing agent, Michael Guagenti of Cushman & Wakefield, told Bloomberg that nearby commercial properties usually garner $64 to $103 per square foot.

And the cards seem to be stacked against Guagenti as he tries to sell the gargantuan basket.

He admitted to Bloomberg that it is the strangest property he’s tried to sell and that it “very challenging.”

“We have had a couple (of offers) but nothing that materialized,” he told the website, adding that so far only developers have shown interest.

One of the biggest issues appears to be its mammoth size.

While a 180,000 square-foot picnic basket may appeal to selfie takers, basket aficionados and architecture nerds, for many local businesses, it is just too much space.

“Just no one is big enough to take that kind of basket on,” said Guagenti.

The basket building’s location hasn’t been an easy sell either.

It is too far for a Columbus-based company to consider it, Guagenti said, adding that if it were closer he likely would’ve sold it by now.

“It’s like they say: location, location, location,”  New York-based real estate broker Brendon DeSimone told Bloomberg.

“It has two things against it: It's a far location, and it's a unique building. The location is probably what's worse.”

The entire building itself could use a paint job.

It was originally constructed in 1997 for  $41.2 million to house the Longaberger Company, which is known for its handcrafted wood baskets and other home and lifestyle products.

However, the company’s sales reportedly fell from about $1.3 billion to $129 million in 2012.

Then, Longaberger moved workers from the ebasket building to another local factor while its holding company, JRJR Networks, decide to consolidate and streamline operations in June.

While it hasn’t been a picnic to convince buyers that there’s a practical use for the building, there’s no hiding its real magnetism and the brutal honesty of its design.

"You might see it three or four miles off before you come around the bend, and then you say, 'That is a basket. That is unquestionably a basket,'" Tom Rochon, founder and vice chairman of JRJR Netowrks, observed in his interview with Bloomberg.