- An underground home in Las Vegas sat on the market for five years, priced as high as $18 million.
- A nonprofit owns the bunker, which has five bedrooms and a fake town over 15,000 square feet.
- The nonprofit is applying to change the bunker’s zoning and turn it into a tourist attraction.
A habitable bunker 26 feet below the ground in Las Vegas was on the market for five years and had its price slashed 67% — but landed no buyer.
The owners, a nonprofit called the Stasis Foundation that backs cryogenics research, originally listed the underground house for $18 million in 2019. Its price dropped several times to a low of $5.9 million.
Earlier this year, the foundation took it off the market and decided to take a different approach: show the bunker off to the world.
The property itself doesn’t look out of the ordinary at first. From the street, passersby see a modest two-story home on a corner lot just three miles from the Las Vegas Strip.
Once visitors venture downstairs, it’s a different story. The underground house, also dubbed the Las Vegas Underground Mansion, is a 15,000-square-foot home with five bedrooms, six bathrooms, and a fake town that mirrors the world above.
The Stasis Foundation — whose research park is in Comfort, Texas, but files taxes from Fort Lauderdale, Florida — bought the Las Vegas property in 2014 for $1.15 million.
According to nonprofit directory Kendall County Giving Connections, the Stasis Foundation is a charitable organization that supports healthcare and biomedical research related to the preservation of cells and tissue using cooling systems “for transplantation, infertility treatments, anti-aging and life extension.”
The foundation took the home off the market earlier this year in order to apply to change its zoning from residential to mixed-use, which will allow it to turn the bunker into a tourist attraction.
The bunker was originally built in 1978 by Jerry Henderson, a businessman and director of cosmetics company Avon Products, who lived there with his wife, Mary.
“It was their luxury mansion to live in for safety, security, quiet, peace, all of those kinds of features,” said Frankie Lewis, who the Stasis Foundation has tapped as the director of events and business development for the underground house.
The property is still registered as a residential property. According to Dean Barry, executive director of the Stasis Foundation, once the zoning is changed, it can offer in-person tours.
Details, including pricing for the tours, are still in the works, Lewis added.
Take a look inside.
