A sign on a rural road points the way to a site where survival condos are being built in a former nuclear missile silo north of Salina, Kansas.
If money were no object, most people would leap at the chance to purchase a luxury apartment complex with a pool, movie theater, library, an on-site private school, a community garden for planting fruits and vegetables and a built-in state of the art security system. But would you plunk down your hard-earned cash for luxe living that just happened to be buried deep underground? For some people, that is the very amenity they are looking for in a building. After all, if you’re going to ride out the apocalypse, you may as well do it in style.
Deep beneath the ground in Kansas, one entrepreneur has started building upscale survivalist bunkers for the high-end set. Developer Larry Hall has sold four multi-millon dollar doomsday bunkers so far, nestling the apartments into the shaft of an abandoned underground nuclear missile test silo, according to the AFP. While bomb shelters were slightly more common in the Cold War days of the 1950s, Halls has been selling his updated versions to wealthy and perhaps slightly paranoid individuals with more modern concerns. “They worry about events ranging from solar flares, to economic collapse, to pandemics to terrorism to food shortages,” Hall told the AFP during a tour of the site.
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Like most luxury apartments, the condos will have top-tier appliances, walk-in closets, a kitchen and dining area; some will offer two living rooms. However, instead of breathtaking views, the underground bunker will feature electronic screens instead of windows, offering views of Paris, New York or the beach. Added to the list of perks included in the building are concrete walls that are nine feet thick and stretch 174 feet (53 meters) underground, built to withstand an atomic blast as well as an advanced security system featuring cameras, barbed-wire topped fences and an elevator that will only operate if a person’s fingerprint matches its system.
According to the AFP, three and a half units have been sold, two contracts are pending and only two more full units are available, Hall said. But demand is apparently high and he has plans to convert seven of the 14 underground floors to condos, which he expects to sell for $2 million a floor or $1 million a half floor. He also has options to retro-fit three more Cold War-era silos.
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