Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Ideal Home For An Aspiring James Bond Villain


I ran across this story while on BBC.com. A missile base "is the ideal home for an aspiring James Bond villain, or an anxious survivalist seeking a refuge that can withstand an atomic bomb. A former US intercontinental ballistic missile base - with a network of underground tunnels and silos, but no nuclear warheads - is on sale on eBay for $1.5m. Located in a remote corner of Washington state and still ringed by its original barbed-wire-topped fence, the 56-acre site is being marketed as a "gorgeous" property and potential resort.
Bari Hotchkiss bought the former base 10 years ago from owners who obtained the property in the 1970s, after the US government deemed obsolete the Titan missiles it was built to launch... Mr Hotchkiss says there are 18 former Titan bases, most of which were sold off.
But his base, he says, is one of the best preserved.
"Most of those former bases are much much smaller, and most all of them have water problems with water leaking in them. So they're filled with water or so wet there is terrible rust, and ours is dry. Portions of our missile base look like it's built last year," he said.
Much of the Cold War era technology was stripped from the site by the military, and to make much of the underground network useable would require several million dollars...

A number of other former US missile bases are also on the market.
The website missilebases.com describes the buildings as "castles of the 20th century". "


Here is the actual e-bay listing with descriptions and pictures. So far, there are no bids. If you're interested, then you need to know the property will be re-listed until sold, leased or a joint venture deal [is] signed." Seller will take a down payment of $300,000 on the $1.5 million sale price.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good words.