Why Survive in a Bunker When You Can Buy a City?
When you’re Bill Gates, you don’t need to survive TEOTWAWKI in your own hidden bunker. Apparently the secretive, secure bunker may billionaires are seeking out is not to his tastes. Or he’s bored with his many hidden bunkers and he’s ready to try something new. Enter Belmont—Gates’s futuristic city in the Arizona desert.
Recently Gates purchased 28,000 acres of Arizona land with the plan of creating the city of Belmont. This city would feature the latest technological advances. These include:
- High-speed networks
- Autonomous logistics hubs
- Data centers
- High-tech manufacturing and distribution
- Autonomous vehicles
The land sits on 39 square miles west of downtown Phoenix. Gates spent $80 million to acquire the property.
On Belmont’s website, the company says they plan to create public schools, tens of thousands of residential units, and commercial and retail spaces in the futuristic city.
As things currently stand, however, if the grid goes down, what good does it to do have a technologically advanced “smart” city if there’s no power to run it? The majority of the state’s power is generated in three nuclear reactors. If these are damaged or attacked, the people around them will experience a lot more than a power outage—and none of it good.
Phoenix would be an unlikely choice for anyone who is planning to survive a catastrophic event. In his book Bird on Fire, New York University sociologist Andrew Ross described the city as being the “least sustainable in the world,” citing factors like pollution, heat, and drought. However, it is possible to survive and even thrive in the desert if you know what you’re doing and you’ve prepared.
Does Gates know what he’s doing? Is Belmont prepared for the collapse of society, or would it instead become one of the first casualties when the SHTF?
It’s Not Just Billionaires Investing in Rural Land
Bill Gates is not the only billionaire snapping up huge rural U.S. properties. These billionaires have also purchased large parcels of land. Are they also planning to develop their own self-sustained communities?
- John Malone – 2,200,000 acres in Wyoming and Colorado
- Ted Turner – 2,000,000 acres in Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico and North Dakota
- Philip Anschultz – 434,000 acres in Wyoming
- Jeff Bezos – 400,000 acres in Texas
- Stan Kroenke – 225,162 acres in Montana
Despite this, billionaires may not be the only people who are planning to create their own cities to live in while they ride out the apocalypse. According to one 2016 post from PrepperGroups.com, a company purchased 120 acres of land adjacent to the US-Mexico border with the intention of creating a self-sustaining prepper community.
According to the post, there was a $50 one-time, non-refundable application fee to be considered for the community. The goal was to bring together a diverse group of people with specialized skills that are needed for survival. This includes doctors, contractors, farmers, military, and more. At the time of the post’s creation, it was claimed they already had military members, nurses, and nurse practitioners on board.
It was claimed there would be 30 one-quarter acre parcels available, each one priced at $1,500. This community hoped to end up with an estimated 60 to 75 families living on the property. Gardens, areas to raise livestock, and other facilities to ensure the community is able to be self-sustaining were planned. The community allegedly already had a well drilled to address the need for a water source, and there is also a 300-gallon water tank on the property.
There are no follow-up posts, so it is unknown whether or not this was a successful endeavor. It may not have been true. The land may have been purchased but the plan fell apart. A third possibility is that there are preppers living on this land right now, and they’re keeping it secret from the rest of the world.
That’s what a smart prepper would do, after all.
If you’ve ever thought about owning your own personal submarine, be sure to check back for our next article here at Rob Raskin’s Millionaire Survivalist.
Bill Gates discusses the land he bought in Arizona.
Take a closer look at Belmont.