In the last decade I spent a fair bit of time working on the idea of buying and refurbing Missile site. I researched Atlas, Titan and Nike sites and even joined a list of ex-air force missileers. One thing about those guys who spent years in them- they talked a lot about the hazardous chemicals, and when one of these sites would come onto the market often people who had worked there would talk about accidents that had happened and various dangers.
To be explicit: What the Air Force considered "Safe" for a situation in which the guys in the station are a long way away in a control room, and what you might consider safe for your house or work environment are very different. The fuel refilling area, where there was a massive spill that wasn't really cleaned up, might be your living room, if you did a conversion. Not saying it's not safe, just be aware and if you go into this, find some guys who served there and get their info.
The TLDR of my years looking into this:
0. Nikes were first and are little more than garages with opening roofs. Not too exciting. Atlas was the next generation and these have buried silos and control rooms, there were several models with the Atlas -F probably the most interesting. Titan is the Big Kahuna of them. They have miles of tunnels and usually multiple silos (I think they cam in 3, 6 and 9 configurations) and massive power rooms and control rooms and all kinds of stuff.
1. The people selling them have dollar signs in their eyes, much of the time. One Titan site I ran down the history of (I doxxed the owners effectively) was bought for $30k in the early 1980s, has never been listed for less than $1M, has never sold, and most recently was listed for $3M. This despite a massive hole in the power station wall, which alone will cost $300k to fix, probably. Most of these are absurdly priced. Realistically, it doesn't matter if the government spent $300M building it, an unrenovated site should cost maybe $100k more than the land itself. The cost of renovation will be more than the cost of getting an equivalent housing built from scratch by a "survivalist" oriented builder, in most cases.
2. If it's not renovated it's going to cost you a lot to renovate. IF that Titan site had been renovated (like some of the homes in Kansas) then maybe it would be worth $3M But renovations to make something like this livable, extremely expensive, and problematic because who wants the liability of making a home out of a toxic waste site (the silos in Denver area are sold with an attachment declaring them such, and I think forbidding living in them.)
2a. If you don't have $300k (atlas maybe) - $1M (titan, minimum) for renovations you may not be ready for this. (There is a couple near Kansas City that renovated an Atlas, probably for a lot less, and they used to give tours.)
4. The same sites come up for sale, over and over again, over many years (see #1) They aren't building any more but they aren't running out of them. Supply remains pretty constant.
An anecdote: I discovered the owners of the Titan site I wanted were real estate pros in California, and was hoping they were really leveraged. This was during the bubble (which having studied economics I knew would collapse) I was hoping they'd be desperate to sell their site after the bubble collapsed and after we were more than 5 years away from 2001 (and the survivalist surge that happened right after). Alas I was wrong, their prices went up. Since the crash their prices have come down a bit, but they're still 10x where it makes sense.
Just to be clear: Nike as a family of nuclear surface-to-air missile systems; the Atlas and Titan were families of ICBM. The Nike system had rail launchers like conventional SAMs designed in the 1950s through the 1970s, but were kept in armored bunkers until needed to keep them from being destroyed in a preliminary strike. The facilities for Nikes and ICBMs are very different, and Nike facilities are usually located near large population centers because they were only built at high-value targets.
I've been into one of the Titan sites outside of Denver - I was given a tour by the owner, as I had some interest when he was trying to sell it.
I ended up walking away because of the dangers and regulatory barriers, as you mentioned. The owner had found old explosives on the surface, toxic materials inside. Everything other than the control room had asbestos. The elevator was broken, so he had put some lights down the stairwell with extension cords... but once at the bottom, you needed flashlights to get around. You ended up dressing up in hazmat suits just to look at the place. The ladders to get to the various levels in the power dome were steep, and navigating that part of the site in the dark, while it was full of old scrap metal and debris... definitely not safe. The control and power domes were dry, but the silos were partially flooded. That was 15 years ago, so I have no idea what has become of the place since that time.
I will say that looking at images and diagrams of these old sites does not really give you a perspective of their scope. The power dome was probably the largest single room I have ever been inside... and it was underground. The control dome had gaps on the edge, so you could look underneath and see these huge springs that held everything up, designed to stabilize it in case of an attack. It may have been a dangerous place, but still really cool to explore. I wouldn't go in without the owners, though - even though most of these can be broken into, if you got hurt down there, that would be serious trouble.
Even if you can purchase these properties cheaply, there is still a lot of work to do, and it is more than most people can really handle. But it can be done if you have the money and time, and people have done some really nice jobs of it in other locations.
I just wanted an underground home, and to have the tunnels renovated to be usable. Several miles of tunnel would make great hiking trail and all that. Would probably have just put up a barrier at the silos and set up lights so you could look down into them... too difficult and expensive to turn them into anything.
Many times the silos get flooded. The equipment is pulled out when they are abandoned leaving a lot of half broken stuff (eg: they don't care about stairs but might care about the thing holding them up).
I know of one that was used as a cave diving environment, but seems really dangerous to me.
Comments
In the last decade I spent a fair bit of time working on the idea of buying and refurbing Missile site. I researched Atlas, Titan and Nike sites and even joined a list of ex-air force missileers. One thing about those guys who spent years in them- they talked a lot about the hazardous chemicals, and when one of these sites would come onto the market often people who had worked there would talk about accidents that had happened and various dangers.
To be explicit: What the Air Force considered "Safe" for a situation in which the guys in the station are a long way away in a control room, and what you might consider safe for your house or work environment are very different. The fuel refilling area, where there was a massive spill that wasn't really cleaned up, might be your living room, if you did a conversion. Not saying it's not safe, just be aware and if you go into this, find some guys who served there and get their info.
The TLDR of my years looking into this: 0. Nikes were first and are little more than garages with opening roofs. Not too exciting. Atlas was the next generation and these have buried silos and control rooms, there were several models with the Atlas -F probably the most interesting. Titan is the Big Kahuna of them. They have miles of tunnels and usually multiple silos (I think they cam in 3, 6 and 9 configurations) and massive power rooms and control rooms and all kinds of stuff.
1. The people selling them have dollar signs in their eyes, much of the time. One Titan site I ran down the history of (I doxxed the owners effectively) was bought for $30k in the early 1980s, has never been listed for less than $1M, has never sold, and most recently was listed for $3M. This despite a massive hole in the power station wall, which alone will cost $300k to fix, probably. Most of these are absurdly priced. Realistically, it doesn't matter if the government spent $300M building it, an unrenovated site should cost maybe $100k more than the land itself. The cost of renovation will be more than the cost of getting an equivalent housing built from scratch by a "survivalist" oriented builder, in most cases.
2. If it's not renovated it's going to cost you a lot to renovate. IF that Titan site had been renovated (like some of the homes in Kansas) then maybe it would be worth $3M But renovations to make something like this livable, extremely expensive, and problematic because who wants the liability of making a home out of a toxic waste site (the silos in Denver area are sold with an attachment declaring them such, and I think forbidding living in them.)
2a. If you don't have $300k (atlas maybe) - $1M (titan, minimum) for renovations you may not be ready for this. (There is a couple near Kansas City that renovated an Atlas, probably for a lot less, and they used to give tours.)
3. The best place to go is probably here, if you're serious: http://www.missilebases.com
4. The same sites come up for sale, over and over again, over many years (see #1) They aren't building any more but they aren't running out of them. Supply remains pretty constant.
An anecdote: I discovered the owners of the Titan site I wanted were real estate pros in California, and was hoping they were really leveraged. This was during the bubble (which having studied economics I knew would collapse) I was hoping they'd be desperate to sell their site after the bubble collapsed and after we were more than 5 years away from 2001 (and the survivalist surge that happened right after). Alas I was wrong, their prices went up. Since the crash their prices have come down a bit, but they're still 10x where it makes sense.
Just to be clear: Nike as a family of nuclear surface-to-air missile systems; the Atlas and Titan were families of ICBM. The Nike system had rail launchers like conventional SAMs designed in the 1950s through the 1970s, but were kept in armored bunkers until needed to keep them from being destroyed in a preliminary strike. The facilities for Nikes and ICBMs are very different, and Nike facilities are usually located near large population centers because they were only built at high-value targets.
If you're in SF and haven't been the to Nike site run by the National Parks Service, you should go. It's site SF-88: http://www.nps.gov/goga/nike-missile-site.htm
On certain days they actually open the bunker doors and will raise and lower a missile.
I've been into one of the Titan sites outside of Denver - I was given a tour by the owner, as I had some interest when he was trying to sell it.
I ended up walking away because of the dangers and regulatory barriers, as you mentioned. The owner had found old explosives on the surface, toxic materials inside. Everything other than the control room had asbestos. The elevator was broken, so he had put some lights down the stairwell with extension cords... but once at the bottom, you needed flashlights to get around. You ended up dressing up in hazmat suits just to look at the place. The ladders to get to the various levels in the power dome were steep, and navigating that part of the site in the dark, while it was full of old scrap metal and debris... definitely not safe. The control and power domes were dry, but the silos were partially flooded. That was 15 years ago, so I have no idea what has become of the place since that time.
I will say that looking at images and diagrams of these old sites does not really give you a perspective of their scope. The power dome was probably the largest single room I have ever been inside... and it was underground. The control dome had gaps on the edge, so you could look underneath and see these huge springs that held everything up, designed to stabilize it in case of an attack. It may have been a dangerous place, but still really cool to explore. I wouldn't go in without the owners, though - even though most of these can be broken into, if you got hurt down there, that would be serious trouble.
Even if you can purchase these properties cheaply, there is still a lot of work to do, and it is more than most people can really handle. But it can be done if you have the money and time, and people have done some really nice jobs of it in other locations.
Great info! What were you planning to do?
I just wanted an underground home, and to have the tunnels renovated to be usable. Several miles of tunnel would make great hiking trail and all that. Would probably have just put up a barrier at the silos and set up lights so you could look down into them... too difficult and expensive to turn them into anything.
I'm thinking ball pit.
Many times the silos get flooded. The equipment is pulled out when they are abandoned leaving a lot of half broken stuff (eg: they don't care about stairs but might care about the thing holding them up).
I know of one that was used as a cave diving environment, but seems really dangerous to me.