Beat the Rush, Get a Fortress Lot Now!

[Burnaby49]

From today's Vancouver Sun.

Actually it might be a good idea to have all these chuckleheads in one place and St. Maries Idaho is is about as isolated as you can get outside of Alaska. Sounds something like the flip-side of the hippie communes of the 60s and Rajneeshpuram in Oregon and we all know how well those turned out.

A resident of a nearby town (the only nearby town) is quoted as saying "This is Podunk Idaho. What are they defending themselves against? " Now that's just small-minded thinking.

If you want to grab a prime spot before the rush their website is below. I don't think the castle shown on the home page is included:

http://www.iiicitadel.com/


http://www.vancouversun.com/Survivalist ... story.html

[Mider]

I plugged in a 1,200 sqft inside the concrete walls with a 1/2 acre lot and it was only $680 a month, wow that's less than I'm paying now, and mine is wood, not super protective concrete. There was a guy on Doomdays Preppers a few weeks ago that was talking about doing something like this, he was going to ask his friends, i.e. roommates or cellmates, to join him.

[Prof]

Bo Gritz started a survival community years ago in Idaho. Elizabeth Clare Prohet started a religious retreat in the Tetons. Now, we have Preppers everywhere, including just south of San Antonio, in Floresville.

[Pottapaug1938]

I have a vision of this area, ten years down the road, with a group of a few buildings, either vacant/boarded up or being used for some purpose other than the original one, after funding falls through (or is stashed in a secret vault before the bust-out).

[Burnaby49]

I have a vision of this area, ten years down the road, with a group of a few buildings, either vacant/boarded up or being used for some purpose other than the original one, after funding falls through (or is stashed in a secret vault before the bust-out).

I disagree! I see a vibrant active community bestowing huge benefits on the lucky host county. It says so right in their website;

The job opportunities and array of industries that will come with our Citadel project should be sufficient to put the entire county to work thereby eliminating unemployment and reducing the existing double-digit poverty level to zero.

Obviously an organization that offers such bounty can afford to be picky about where they locate. Benefits have to flow both ways to make it work;

There are several counties in Idaho that will work equally well for the Citadel Project if Benewah County fails to offer our Citadel Team suitable incentives. While every effort and intention is to build in Benewah County, the Citadel Project reserves the right to select a final location with similar terrain in other Idaho counties or, if necessary, in Montana, Wyoming or elsewhere in the American Redoubt.

[Pottapaug1938]

Soooooooo. Now, instead of "building castles in Spain", we will have "building Citadels in Idaho".

[Prof]

How many of these deals have been "bust outs?"
Does anyone know of the track record of these "citadel" projects in this regard?

Explanation:
A bust out is the use of a business front, usually a legitimate business, to collect assets on credit/promise to build or sell something. The asssets are sold, money is syphoned off, and the business folds, disappears, files bankruptcy.

For example, the "mob" takes over an existing furniture store with good credit; the store buys as much as it can on credit, but sells it out the front, back, and side doors, for cash.

The "mob" pockets the cash and closes the store.

This sort of thing was once very frequently done with independent gasoline stations in the Northeast.

[Mider]

"if Benewah County fails to offer our Citadel Team suitable incentives". Hmm what kinda incentives, free coffee with a purchase of 20 cuft of concrete? I think they might need to offer Benewah County the incentives instead of the other way around. If they go ahead with their arms factory, maybe 2 free guns to each deputy or 20 bullets a kilowatt hour used of electricity?

[notorial dissent]

Looks like a pie in the sky operation to me. They don't have a site, and I don't see how they could possible do any of what they are proposing for what they are charging. To say I am highly skeptical is to put it mildly.

[Prof]

Looks like a pie in the sky operation to me. They don't have a site, and I don't see how they could possible do any of what they are proposing for what they are charging. To say I am highly skeptical is to put it mildly.

These deals always look/looked like "bust out" schemes to me.

[AndyK]

If I read their site correctly, they blatantly stole the plans from E&E.

I wonder if there's a special zoning required for a walled, fortified city and what the property taxes would be -- if the residents even consider paying them.

[webhick]

If I read their site correctly, they blatantly stole the plans from E&E.

Two points which make that totally stupid of them:

1. The feds now know E&E's place inside and out.
2. That lovely tower of Ed's had structural issues.

[notorial dissent]

The main reason I say scam is that the cost of the land alone would set them back more than they could possibly scam off the "patriots", even if they got full participation, the construction cost on the curtain wall and towers would be enormous, as well as anything resembling infrastructure, and I don't see how they could possibly build the resident's houses for what they are proposing to charge, and I don't see Benewah county, lucky them, not charging them property taxes etc, or expecting them to abide by county rules etc.

By the way did anyone read their Patriot Agreement? Interesting!!!! I think I would be a whole lot more interested in knowing what the "residents" rights were as opposed to the community's myself.

This thing reminds me much too much of several "planned" communities I was familiar with that popped up in the middle of nowhere with a lot of fanfare and then ultimately died for lack of money and residents back in the 70's/80's

Somehow I personally don't think Jefferson would be real pleased having his name tied to soemthing like this.

[Quixote]

The prices they're quoting don't seem all that low to me. $696/month for a life estate on 1/4 acre and the shell of a house seems a bit high to me. I haven't factored in the 2 AR-15s and all the ammo you can eat.

Maybe they're counting on most of their customers being old and in poor health. Since they're only selling a life estate in the land, they'll be able to sell it again in a few years.

[notorial dissent]

And they're going to buy the property this is all going to be built on as well as pay for the construction, although I see they have already purchased 20 acres, but they still have to pay for the infrastructure, and building all those curtain walls, and that isn't going to be cheap, and I somehow doubt they have enough capital behind them to fund this beforehand, and I don't see them having it from what they are charging for the ground rent or whatever it is. Sorry, I just don't see it happening.

[GlimDropper]

The prices they're quoting don't seem all that low to me. $696/month for a life estate on 1/4 acre and the shell of a house seems a bit high to me. I haven't factored in the 2 AR-15s and all the ammo you can eat.

Point of fact, it's one AR-15 and a 9mm semi auto pistol, the latter of which must be carried (not merely stored in a vehicle) by every able bodied patriots who are of age (13 and over) when they visit the Citadel Town Center.

Since they're only selling a life estate in the land, they'll be able to sell it again in a few years.

Hey, maybe I'm seeing the angle here.

[Prof]

And, I am not even sure you can sell a "life estate" in real property. Leases measured by the life of the tenant are generally treated as "leases terminable at will."

Certainly, no lender would finance a purchase of a "life estate" unless the collateral was something other than the "life estate."

[Thule]

Point of fact, it's one AR-15 and a 9mm semi auto pistol, the latter of which must be carried (not merely stored in a vehicle) by every able bodied patriots who are of age (13 and over) when they visit the Citadel Town Center.

Luckily, the people behind The Citadel also sells AR-15s. What a coincidence!

[JamesVincent]

Maybe their doing "owner financing". If that is the price per month with only 1/4 acre and a concrete shell then the home company would be making money hand over fist. Only thing is, how are they going to survive when Yellowstone explodes?

[mpo]

We have had a proposal for a free market paradise here in Detroit. It's another one that was announced at the local economic club rather than a Denny's.

A developer wants to buy Belle Isle (a park; the city and state are trying to come to a lease agreement) for $1 billion from the city. As they explain, "The island is then developed into a city-state of 35,000 people, with its own laws, customs and currency, under United States supervision as a Commonwealth." It will become a Midwest tiger that is the envy of the world.

You, too can buy in for only $300,000. You'll have to pass an interview with the citizenship board. You will have access to a monorail and will use inflation proof 'Rands' to buy your goods and services.

You can read all about it here:
http://www.commonwealthofbelleisle.com

An interview with the developer:
http://video.foxnews.com/v/2130939987001

A not-so-positive review of the novella that outlines the grand scheme of the Commonwealth of Belle Isle:
http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles ... ian_spirit

My thoughts--a) they keep on saying the island is vacant. It's not vacant. It has no permanent residents because the whole island is a park. Over a million cars cross the bridge every year. There are a lot of visitors.

b) The whole scheme reminds me of the comedy bit "How to make a million dollars. First, start with a million dollars, then..."