For Bagans, whose career revolves around exploring the paranormal and preserving objects associated with unexplained phenomena, the property offers an opportunity to create another distinctive museum experience.
The Stasis Foundation & Charitable Trust purchased it in March 2014 for $1.15 million. Five years later, it entered the market with an ambitious asking price of $18 million. After failing to attract a buyer, the asking price was subsequently reduced to $5.9 million.
Located just minutes from the Las Vegas Strip, the home is difficult to identify from street level. Its subterranean design, complete with landscape murals, painted clouds and stars, sculpted trees concealing structural columns, a water fountain and green carpeting resembling grass, was conceived to make underground living feel surprisingly ordinary, adds the online report. Over the decades, the unusual property evolved beyond its original purpose. Its subterranean rooms were eventually used for special events, while a house manager occupied the home above ground. The property’s real estate journey has been almost as remarkable as its design.
Bagans ultimately secured the property for $4.55 million, marking a significant drop from its original multimillion-dollar listing. Its unusual architecture and elaborate history also made viewings an undertaking in themselves. Prospective buyers were carefully screened, with tours lasting several hours to accommodate explanations of the home’s origins and features, claims the online report.
Bagans already operates Zak Bagans’ The Haunted Museum in downtown Las Vegas, where visitors explore rooms filled with reportedly haunted objects and items associated with paranormal stories. The Underground House could offer a different experience, blending architectural curiosity, Cold War history and the intrigue surrounding a home concealed beneath an otherwise ordinary neighbourhood. Its planned transformation into a public museum will also help preserve a rare example of experimental underground living. In a city renowned for spectacle, the next attraction may be one that visitors have to descend below ground to discover, concludes the report.