September 08, 2002

By Hart Seely
Staff writer

A bit nervous in these troubled times?

Let the bidding begin for the ultimate safe house.

A former underground Atlas-F nuclear missile silo in the Adirondack foothills - "privacy, security and luxury for discerning buyers," its sellers promise - has landed on eBay, the Internet's everything-must-go auction site.

"It's a rare, 20th-century, restored collectable," said co-owner Bruce Francisco of the 14-story-deep shaft that once housed a Cold War weapon and first went on the market in the waning pre-Y2K weeks of 1999. "They just don't make them any more."

And they don't often change hands.

But that's what Francisco and cousin Gregory Gibbons hope will happen within the next two weeks. On Aug. 26, they launched the silo home's 30-day online auction with a minimum bid of $2.1 million. A bid of $25 million will buy the property outright, nuke the auction and secure the new homeowners their own "private James Bond 007 secret lair."

So far, there are no takers.

"In a sense, it's almost come around full circle, from the Cold War to - well, here we are - another cold war," said Francisco, an airplane pilot, writer and real estate developer based in Westbrook, Conn.

Fifteen years ago, Gibbons purchased the site, located about 22 miles west of Plattsburgh. He spent months pumping water from the silo, which hangs from giant suspension coils that were designed to withstand the shock of a direct nuclear hit.

Later, Francisco remodeled the former launch control center into a two-story, underground home. Their partnership, Franwick Industries, added an above-ground chalet and 2,050-foot air-strip.

"Between (Gibbons) coming up here all those years, draining it and setting up shop, we kind of lived there," Francisco said.

"It's been somewhat of a 14-year project. I don't think people have any idea how much work we put into this."

The U.S. Department of Defense might. Between 1959 and 1961, it built the missile silo out of steel and 8-foot-thick concrete at a cost of $18 million.

It was one of 12 silos that ringed the former Plattsburgh Air Force Base.

In 1961, it housed an Atlas-F Intercontinental Ballistic Missile - one of the famous ICBMs of Cold War strategy.

In case of a nuclear attack, its three-person crew had one mission: Wait until the fires were out upstairs, then raise the antenna, set the target coordinates, open the steel overhead doors and launch America's retaliatory strike.

The silo was outmoded, however, by the time it was built.

In 1965, the Defense Department scrapped the Atlas program for the Titan missile system.

A year later, the silo had become a 50-foot wide abandoned shaft on a remote road and, for more than 20 years, it filled with rainwater.

In its new incarnation as luxury underground refuge, the remodeled launch control center has a full kitchen, entertainment center, marble baths with Jacuzzi and concrete reinforced walls.

Through massive doors, a short tunnel runs to the silo itself, which drops about 180 feet into a shadowy world.

Three years ago, when it first went on the market, the owners sought $2.3 million.

"Over the years, I've probably had 800 to 1,000 inquiries," Francisco said. "Of course, a lot of those are tire-kickers, and I try to filter them out. ... Our house isn't a museum. It's our home."

Tire-kickers or not, Francisco said he'll miss the place.

"It's been a great thing to have in the family, but this is it," he said. "It's on eBay. It's for sale. ... And, hey, where else are you going to find something like this?"