Chip and Joanna Gaines Are Filming a New Show at Their Waco Hotel — and They Might Keep ‘Fixer Upper’s’ Renovated Castle
The latest season of “Fixer Upper,” a special “The Castle” edition focusing around Chip and Joanna Gaines renovating a 100-year-old castle in their hometown of Waco, Tex., just concluded its six-episode run on Magnolia Network, Discovery+ and HBO Max. But the Gaineses have already moved onto their next on-screen renovation, which is particularly significant for them, as the final product is going to be an integral part of their Magnolia empire: Hotel 1928, a boutique downtown Waco location that will cater to the throngs of people who make a pilgrimage to their outdoor shopping, dining and recreation area, The Silos.
“We are currently filming the hotel renovation and the irony there is the architect who did the work on the castle back in the day, Roy Lane, was the same architect on this hotel when it was first built,” Joanna Gaines said during a cover story interview for Variety‘s inaugural Lifestyle Leaders issue. “It’s fun that I am seeing these ties and design things that were in the castle that are in the current building. It feels really special in that way.”
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The Gaineses say the hotel, a partnership between themselves and boutique hotel developer AJ Capital, will be finished by next October — so look to see the show about the renovation, which is currently untitled, launch after that. And, of course, you’ll then have the chance to actually stay at Hotel 1928, too.
“This has been the biggest project of my life — the castle is second now — with four floors of restaurants and rooms and a whole ballroom,” Joanna said. “But both of these projects, the castle and the hotel, have really been led by the history of it, the design being driven by that more than, what do I want to do with it? It’s definitely been something that I’ve had to let the story lead that design. So it’s been a fun learning process for me where I feel like I get to show up and just be a student and get schooled for a second.”
For the castle, Chip and Joanna have been holding a beat on what exactly they are going to do with it, after buying it and renovating it “with the sole intention to sell it to a family — to an end user who was going to use it” rather than list it on VRBO or Airbnb.
“The problem is, it’s hard to really govern that,” Chip said. “Once I sell you something, it’s yours and you can do what you want with it… In my insecurity, I’m like, ‘What if the family owns it and then rents it out on the weekends?’ They can do whatever they want to do, I don’t want to feel like I’m looking over someone’s shoulder. If I can let this go and not really worry about what happens next, then I’m going to let it go and there’s no hard feelings. But if I’m going to constantly be second guessing what you do with what I just did, then I didn’t let it go. So the thing I keep debating internally…what if it’s meant to be for us? And I don’t mean for us personally, because I don’t think we’re ever going to physically live there. But I don’t know that there’s not somebody five years from now, 10 years from now, family — my parents live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, they’re getting up in age, maybe they want to move to town so they can be closer to the grandkids. How do I know? Right this minute, that’s not true — but it could be true tomorrow.”
He added: “I would hate to let this thing go, make a little profit or cut our losses, whatever pops out of it financially, only to then regret it a year from now. I think we’re just really slow playing this.”
Luckily, Joanna is right with him on this one: “Let’s enjoy it for a second before we decide.”
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