Project developer Larry Hall claims the building’s nine-foot-thick epoxy-hardened concrete walls can withstand direct nuclear strikes—and as COVID-19 spreads, Hall said that he’s “seen a spike in inquiries.” Wealthy people, and even preppers, may be responding to the outbreak in all kinds of ways, but one person who’s already reserved his spot at the condo is Tyler Allen , a 51-year-old Florida entrepreneur who owns multiple “fortified locations,” as he describes them. For now he’s staying “highly alert” at home, but he’s prepared to join his potential neighbors—“A-list celebrities, a who’s who of Silicon Valley, Republican, Democrat, no matter”—at the silo when the time comes. We spoke to Allen about life in underground luxury. What follows has been edited and condensed for clarity.

One of the best options is in Middle America. If you’re part of the 1%, why wait for sluggish government support when you can burrow 175 feet underground in a refurbished Air Force missile silo in rural Kansas that markets itself as a survival condo ? Aquaculture, movie theater, dog park, rock-climbing wall, 50,000-gallon pool, spa, even ex-Green Berets and Navy SEALS for security—and a water park. A 920-square-foot space runs about $1.5 million ; 1,840 square feet is $3 million.

A pandemic, like any other crisis, has a way of exposing the chasm between the haves and have-nots, and perhaps the deepest trench right now is the one between the one percenters self-quarantining in dramatic and expensive fashion—and the rest of humanity. While most of us scroll social media and stay glued to cable news, Peter Thiel has a New Zealand hideaway and Jeff Bezos reportedly rules over 300,000 acres in West Texas. We’ve all probably heard about them, but did we ever really think we’d see them put to use?

I started thinking about survival back around 9/11. Now the divide between the right and the left, everybody has their own survival concerns and survival needs. I started researching the economy and the collapse of the dollar, stuff like that. I’m more concerned about social unrest, with continuity of family, continuity of business, meaning, for lack of a better description, a Camp David for your family on a little lighter scale.

When trouble comes, let’s take Florida. Trouble comes in hurricanes and when hurricanes come, it’s not just the hurricane. Your power goes out, now you’re worried about your children. You’re trying to get to work, nobody can get to work, it’s a real problem. If we know a hurricane is coming in Florida, we can head out to the ‘cabin,’ we call it, the survival condo, bring your team leaders and family and basically ride out a hurricane like you’re in a Hilton hotel. That’s basically what this is. All the luxuries: swimming pool, movie theatre. You know, it's nothing more than trying to prepare for disaster with your family and get through it without suffering.

The biggest question everyone asks: what are you gonna do if something happens, if you’re stuck, how are you going to get there? You have to have a realistic plan. If you’re survival-minded, you have a five-day head start on most everybody else. For example, a hurricane is coming to Miami, I live in Orlando. Most people sit there and stare at the TV, wait to see what happens. I would rather get in the car, get out of Florida before the two hours are up. You have to have the ability to get to where you’re going to stay during crisis situations, so [someplace like New Zealand] would be too far.

That’s not my only destination, the survival condo. I also have other fortified locations I own as well. Larry, with the condo project, is the most hardened, protected against almost every type of problem that can come. Some of my hard facilities have a bunker but it doesn’t have protection for biological infection, doesn’t have protection for radiation. The survival condo has layering; it has it all. I’m protected from everything.

The coronavirus seems to be highly contagious. A lot of government agencies are very concerned. I’m concerned about how concerned the people get. I believe the threat will come from mass hysteria more than the actual virus. If all of a sudden there’s quarantines being thrown out, whether it’s overkill or not, quarantine means shelves empty, people getting angry, lawlessness on the streets. Things can get crazy. That’s more a concern than the virus itself.

I’m staying highly alert. I’m watching how long it takes different areas to call a quarantine, travel bans, to see if shelves are emptying with supplies. My threat index in terms of continuity of business, family, if all of a sudden, I can’t conduct business, then I will head out to a nice staycation at one of the facilities, probably Larry’s because it’s biologically fortified. And I’ll bring my team and we’ll have fun in a triple-A facility and watch movies and go to the water park and have a great time. And I won’t have to worry about that because I have that facility.

Pretty soon [I’ll be back in]. This coronavirus actually annoyed me because it’s supercharged the buying market and put a run on spaces. I’ll make my way out in the next few weeks. Now I have to do it a little quicker because all of a sudden this entire facility sold out in a week. Whenever there is a problem, let’s say a massive earthquake in California, the people that had this on their mind, they have the means, they make a move. They start buying. This scare has a lot of people on the phone making orders. It made me speed up my plans.

All of these things need to be operated, they need to be manned. If you really get into a critical situation, you’re going to need hands, you need people to do these jobs. You can’t do it all by yourself.

I can't get too far in the inner protocol but I’ll tell you this: there is a lockdown protocol where everybody will learn a job and a skill and there will be a rotation where it’ll be quarterly or semi-annually. Jobs will be rotated so everyone in the facility will learn every job. And it only makes sense in a survivability situation. So everybody would learn in case something happens, not just one person who would know how to do everything. There’s no pecking order. It’s a very different attitude—very family-oriented where everybody understands—if you go to that place on a lockdown situation, you understand it’s serious. And everyone’s there for the same people. That pulls everybody together in a way that only crises can unite.

When you see the facilities, you’ll understand. You might go stir crazy, but no more stir crazy than if you were in a five-star hotel. It’s got every amenity, water parks, movie theaters; there are screens that project an image of wherever it is you want to be. They use the NASA protocol so you don’t go stir crazy: how high the ceilings need to be, what you need to see looking out your window, things like that.

I’ve spent excess of $1 million. I don’t see it as spending, I see it as investing. The unit I purchased first, I believe [was] right over $1 million. The resale on that is $4 million. These facilities, the level that we’re talking about, are a commodity. It doesn’t matter how wealthy you are, you can buy beachfront property, a ranch, a jet, but there’s only so many of these. You just can’t say I want a hardened facility and build it. It’s very difficult, you have to have someone who knows what they’re talking about [who] knows the contractors, all of the systems and controls that it takes for something like this. It’s an investment and it’s a really cool thing to own.

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