This One’s the Charm: Third Atlas-F Missile Silo Blasts Onto the Market in Nebraska for $800K
Realtor.com
If you missed out on the first two missile silos that recently came on the market in Nebraska, you’re in luck. There’s now a third missile silo up for sale in the state. And someone interested in Cold War history should nab it.
Listing agents Polly and Mike Figeuroa, both with BancWise Realty, have found an unlikely niche in Atlas-F missile silo sales.
“Sometimes you find a niche. Sometimes they find you,” says Mike. He and his wife have listed three former missile silos this year.
“When we look back to April of this year, we didn’t even know that these missile silos existed, and now we’ve become the Nebraska experts on Atlas-F missile silos,” he says.
This silo is on over 9 acres in Elmwood and is listed for $800,000. But it probably won’t be available for long.
ExteriorMike & Polly Figueroa
Silo sitesMike & Polly Figueroa
The first silo was sold in about 12 days. The second silo found a buyer in about six days.
“We got that first call and learned a little bit about Atlas-F missile silos here, not realizing there were 12 of them within a 60-mile radius of Lincoln,” Mike says. “Then thinking that one was an anomaly, then getting two, we thought, wow, lightning struck twice. And the day before that closed, we got a call for the third.”
Launch doorsMike & Polly Figueroa
Decommissioned missile sites
The U.S. government decommissioned the Atlas-F sites in 1965. While operational, the missile itself was in a vertical silo that was connected by a 40-foot tunnel to an adjoining control center that had living spaces.
This property has a large building with about 3,200 square feet of finished space. Inside, there is a space that can hold up to 300 people with a commercial kitchen and two bathrooms.
“This one was a salvage yard for many years that has since been cleaned off. The land has been used and is permitted as an outdoor gun range,” Mike explains. The building has been used “a little bit as a community preparedness training facility where they teach people about canning foods and supplying in case of emergency.”
BuildingsMike & Polly Figueroa
InteriorMike & Polly Figueroa
But the missile silo and event space attract the most attention.
“It’s in really bad shape, and other than salvage, really nothing has been touched since it was decommissioned in 1965. It still has kind of the skeleton of the launch command center. You can see the walls, the partitions, the bathroom, the area where the kitchen used to be, and kind of the outline of where the bunk area was.”
The silo itself is in worse shape. It’s been filled with lots and lots of tires.
“It has 70,000 tires in it in addition to 125 feet of groundwater,” Mike explains, adding it won’t be an easy task to remove the tires.
“Lifting the silo doors open again is a task because of the weight of those. They used to have giant hydraulic motors and lifts on them, but those were removed when they were decommissioned,” he says.
Each door weighs about 90 tons.
“When this was a salvage yard, one of those doors was open and apparently trucks would back up to it and dump tires in it,” he says. The door has since been closed because of liability concerns.
Launch command centerMike & Polly Figueroa
While the property isn’t zoned residential, Figueroa notes that it’s a possibility.
“It could easily be modified and turned into a residence, or at least to a point where somebody could stay there if they wanted to work on the project of cleaning out the launch command center and making it a livable structure.”
Several people have already shown an interest in the property. And Mike is also prepared to field more phone calls about listing silos for sale.
“You never know. There are nine more near Lincoln,” he adds.
StairsMike & Polly Figueroa
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