Luxury doomsday bunker in north-central Kansas sees interest rise during pandemic
Toilet paper is not a concern at a luxury doomsday condominium in north-central Kansas. Each million dollar-plus condo has bidets.
Residents of the Survival Condo have started to occupy their survival shelters since the novel coronavirus spread across the globe in January, according to project manager and owner Larry Hall. Interest has also skyrocketed for the condos, which start at $1.1 million. The condos are below ground in a decommissioned nuclear missile silo in the Concordia area — about two hours north of Wichita — with the amenities to ease any stay-home order: heated pool with slide and waterfall, gun range, movie theater, gym, arcade, rock climbing wall, saunas and a dog park, to name a few.
Hall and his family, who live in Denver, have also moved in for the time being.
“My family’s more comfortable being here,” Hall said. “There is way more to do here, that is the other big thing. People can spend a week or two in their homes. You start getting three weeks, four weeks and they start getting pretty bored and you’re seeing that.”
The former Atlas missile silo descends 15 floors, or about 200 feet, underground and was built to withstand a nuclear blast. The facility is a 14-unit condominium and can hold up to 75 people, including staff who live in the silo.
If all of the owners and their families showed up there would be about 54 people, including 17 children ranging in age from 3 to 21.
“Everyone knows (each other’s) kid’s names … Everyone knows their pet’s name,” Hall said.
A full-floor unit is 1,820 square feet and costs about $2.4 million. A half-floor unit, at 900 square feet, costs at least $1.1 million.
The condos have all been sold out at times, including the floor models. But there are currently six units (four half-floors and two full floors) open after a man who owned multiple floors died and Hall purchased the units back from his estate.
Three of those condos are currently under contract, Hall said.
“It’s the highest (call volume for interested customers) it’s ever been,” Hall said. “The video tours are being requested more and copies of contracts are picking up.”
One person bought a condo last month without seeing it in person first, Hall said. They’ve also turned down people who didn’t pass a background check.
“We’re mostly looking for two things: crimes against children or people that are violent,” Hall said. “And we have had both of those problems.”
The facility isn’t currently on lockdown, so residents go and do their own shopping and cook in their modern kitchen. From their kitchens, they can see a window frame filled with a high definition TV broadcasting a live feed of the outdoors.
Other provisions include bidets in each condo where “You can set everything from the temperature to how hard the spray is,” Hall told CNBC, adding it would take an entire floor of toilet paper to store enough for seven years for 70 people.
Going to lockdown
Plans exist to get residents to the facility in the event of a disaster.
Once there, the facility has enough freeze-dried and canned food to last each resident for five years, according to a 2017 story in The Eagle. The facility also has aquaponic rooms where tilapia can be raised and vegetables and fruit can be grown without soil.
For residents, the food can be picked up the facility’s grocery store on their way home from a half-day’s work inside the silo. The grocery store has coolers with glass fronts for storing food and signs that say “FRESH BREAD” and “DELI FOODS.”
In a lockdown, adults would have to work four hours each day.
Someone might teach elementary school one month and perform hydroponics, security or maintenance the next month. Children also go to school four hours a day in a classroom equipped with iMacs and educational films, The Eagle reported.
On the outside, security guards man the gates. There are also non-manned lethal and non-lethal deterrents. The lethal deterrents include a remote sniper post at the top of a dome built above the silo. The dome is built to withstand 500 mph winds.
The facility also has a jail and pharmacy. And an infirmary that would be run by the owners that practice medicine, Hall said.
The facility has a volcanic ash scrubber, nuclear biological and chemical air filtration and five sources of power ranging from a wind turbine to generators, The Eagle reported.
Part of the mass interest about his condos is the high-tech amenities in a Cold War-era missile silo and the fact that a facility once associated with mass destruction is now meant to preserve life, Hall said.
Hall’s clients also said it’s a good bang for the buck.
“The same quality of condo in New York would have cost me the same, if not more per square foot and you get peace of mind with this,” according to a statement from a client on survivalcondo.com.
Second silo
After 9/11, Hall started to think of ways to turn former missile silos into secure data centers. Hall has a background in technology, communication systems and database design.
The idea morphed into a bunker for Hall and his family, but it would have been cost-prohibitive without adding multiple units to recoup costs.
He built the first silo and started to work on a second silo a few years ago. The second one is about a 40-minute drive from the first and is about 50% complete, Hall said.
The project is at a standstill since several entities have made inquiries about buying it outright and would want to make special requests, he said.
Dealing with one entity has its pros and cons, Hall said. While it is easier as a developer for him to work with one person, the inquiries are all done by organizations with committees that drag out the process.
It also requires Hall to render up designs for each serious inquiry. The Saudi Arabia government wanted a rendering with a “James Bond type helicopter port and an underground mosque,” Hall said.
He estimates the silo would sello for $45-60 million.
This story was originally published April 23, 2020 at 3:24 PM.