Brünig Mega Safe, a company owned by Swiss entrepreneur Thomas Gasser, is drilling into the Alpine rocks to build 20 mega bunkers more than 100 metres underground, designed to safeguard the wealth of the super-rich. The project, being executed beneath the mountains of the Brunig Pass, near the village of Lungern, is led by the entrepreneur, who offers each vault through a 99-year lease agreement with prices starting at around one million Swiss francs, just over one million euros.
Behind this extravagant dream is a company with over 300 employees and decades of experience in underground construction, quarries and the use of explosives. Designed to work as vaults, they can accommodate everything from art collections, gold and exclusive wines to high-end automobiles. Construction for the project is underway and the complex is scheduled to open next year.
Beneath more than one hundred meters of alpine rock, those twenty vaults await the billionaires willing to pay close to one million francs to safeguard their assets for the next 99 years.
“You’ll first have to drive through a special checkpoint and get out of your vehicle: there will be several security checks, which obviously won’t be disclosed to the public,” Gasser told RTS. Security is the most closely guarded aspect of the business. Access is controlled through a phased process that includes an airlock where visitors must leave their vehicles before undergoing several checks. Those in charge do not disclose the procedure, although they assure that the level of protection is comparable to that of the Swiss National Bank’s reserves. Once completed, access will be restricted to a select few. The market for secure storage is experiencing exponential growth, fuelled by global instability. “For a long time, Dubai was considered safe. People simply want to safeguard part of their wealth,” explained Gasser. Catch the latest World News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.
Today, that sense of security is being called into question.
A 99-year underground lease allowed for the gradual expansion of its uses.
The idea originated in the 1990s when Gasser used a gallery in Lungern as a warehouse and workshop, according to a report by Vozpopuli. The next step was to transform the complex into a high-security enclave for the very wealthy, according to its promoters. They have a unit registered independently in the Swiss land registry and, according to Gasser, can even mortgage it like any other property.
First came a restaurant and events centre, Cantina Caverna; then a shooting range and a firefighter training facility that simulated tunnel fires. The plan includes around twenty caverns, each with a lease for almost a century. Just four years ago, the rates for the vaults were half of what they are now. The largest of the planned caverns will be about the size of a football field. One of the project’s attractions lies in its legal structure. The client becomes the owner.