A unique, pricey piece of real estate is up for grabs in Saranac, New York.
Its driveway can double as an airplane runaway. Inside the structure, there are three-and-a-half baths. And…a concrete staircase is hidden in a closet.
As you may have noticed, this is no ordinary home. In fact, it used to be one of 12 Atlas-F Intercontinental Missile sites in the area. They were completed during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, only to be de-commissioned just three years later.
Most of them are now abandoned, but not this one. Bruce Francisco, the site’s owner, turned the launch command centre into an extraordinary home.
“Many of these silos do exist, many of them are underwater. There’s no steel. It’s like a big hole in the ground,” he told Global National‘s Mike Armstrong during a tour on Tuesday.
“A lot of the locations for these are in remote places of the country, because the locations were chosen to keep the enemy away from scrub lands in North Dakota and Ohio.”
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Francisco’s silohome is different than the rest, however. “What makes this unique is the fact that there’s an airfield and none other of these silos has that.”
The master bedroom, traditionally on the upper floor of a two-level home, is actually 12 metres (40 feet) below the ground. This “second level” actually sat underwater for decades before Francisco stepped in. “There are seven levels…185 feet (56.4 metres) total.”
Downstairs, lights behind glass blocks have been installed to mimic daylight. “People think, ‘Oh, you’re in a missile base, you’re going to feel claustrophobic,’ but really, the ceilings are 10 feet tall, you have this natural lighting thing going on…that was my goal, keep it spacious.”
While renovations inside the command centre are complete, the silo itself still needs a lot of work done. The nearly 60-metre tall room is ready to be transformed into virtually anything the new owner desires.
“Whoever buys that is going to determine the destiny of the property,” says Francisco.
Brian Domenic of Select Sotheby’s International Realty says there has been quite a bit of interest in the property. “(We get) probably 1,000 hits a day on our website.”
“At first, we were letting anyone come through, but now we have to make sure they are legit.”
And offers are flying in. Francisco says, “I have a party out of New York that has the offer together, they’re just trying to put the money together… They want to turn the place into a resort.”
The site is up for grabs for $1.76 million, which includes 200 acres on the surface, two homes, a private airfield, and the rights to subdivide the land. Some might say this is a steal of a deal, considering it was built for $18 million back in 1958, according to Francisco.
With files from Global National’s Mike Armstrong
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