PICS: Underground mine turned into modern office space
The promotors of SubTropolis call it the The World’s Largest Underground Business Complex.
The industrial and warehouse complex is in an old limestone room-and-pillar underground mine near Kansas City in Missouri, USA.
They’re so confident that the mine-into-business-park concept will take off that they’ve gone so far as to trademark™ the name. They also have a mascot called GUS – Great Underground Space.
The company has nearly 5,000,000 square feet of industrial space for lease in SubTropolis which is adjacent to Ford’s Claycomo vehicle plant.
According to a Bloomberg piece tenants have reported saving as much as 70% on their energy bills while rents of $2.25 per square foot is about half the going rate above ground. Some 1,000 people already work in SubTropolis.
Images below are from a company that’s in the process of moving into the complex (and the firm’s neighbors: The US National Archives and Records Administration). Click here to see many more of these. Click here for more on SubTropolis.
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3 Comments
Khai
what about increased ventilation costs and safety problems?
Mark Harder
Khai, enough already! I get your point ;-). If the developers thought this true, I’m sure they have reason to believe initial costs and energy savings more than make up for some of the unusual costs.
That said, I worked for a few years in the bottom floor NY state’s Albany office complex. There were no windows. One day I went to work on a crisp shiny winter day. When I emerged from the depths, it was wet, gray & slushy. The snow was falling. I had to pause and convince myself I hadn’t missed a day somehow. I guess mine workers deal with it somehow. I just wasn’t used to it.
Ex-geology Major
In the presence of moisture, automobile exhausts creates acidic air that eats at limestone.