A Michigan estate for sale has a bunker. It’s getting global interest

A $6.5 million home in Battle Creek outfitted with an underground bunker is attracting interest from around the world as Ukraine sends up warning signs about the potential repercussions of a Russian attack on the Chernobyl nuclear plant.

The 14,000 square-foot home, completed in 2018 at 22072 Pine Lake Road on 323 acres, comes with a 5,000-square-foot bunker from Texas-based Rising S Co. Under six inches of steel, there are bedrooms and bathrooms for up to 20 people, two kitchens, a grow room and a shooting range.

“It’s China, Australia, the U.K., just all over the place,” Ryan Johnson, the estate’s listing agent for Michigan Lifestyle Properties, said of the origination of the inquiries he’s received. “We’re getting more interest from people closer to Ukraine. We have someone coming in from California. For people who have been traveling from Detroit and Chicago, it’s a convenient, private and rural location.”

Gary Lynch, general manager of Rising S, told The Detroit News the bunker in the home offers full nuclear protection with an air purification system, solar panels and blast valve: “It is a literal masterpiece.”

Since Feb. 24 when Russia began its attacks on Ukraine, Rising S has sold 35 bunkers, which is about as many as the company might sell in a typical year. Typically they range from $70,000 to $120,000, Lynch said, though some recent buyers have gone for even double that. The bunker in the Battle Creek home is about $2.5 million.

“We’re got a world superpower threatening nuclear capabilities and flexing his nuclear muscles,” Lynch said. “I would encourage people to prepare.”

A Ukrainian national emergency services agency on Friday claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered preparations for a terrorist attack on the nuclear power plant, the site of a 1986 explosion and meltdown, CBS News reported. The agency warned if power to the plant’s cooling systems is cut off, a radioactive cloud could form over Europe.

“A year ago when we listed this, it wasn’t something most people thought would be necessary, but you never know what Putin’s going to do,” Johnson said. “It’s an attractant for someone looking for safety and protection and things like that.”

Johnson declined to disclose the name of the seller, but public property records list the owner as TIA Corp. The company’s president is Per Wickstrom, according to state regulatory filings. Wickstrom is CEO of a drug treatment center, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The three-story home has five bedrooms, six full and three half-baths and a four-car garage. It’s barely lived in, Johnson said. It sits on a private stocked lake. There is a greenhouse on the property and a video surveillance security system. There are three additional homes as part of the compound and access to four additional lakes.

Johnson said he’s requested more information from Rising S about the bunker. The property’s not able to go completely off grid, but there is enough room for a solar farm.

“You got a property like that, and it’s as secluded as you can find in southwest Michigan. It’s a high-end property, so why not?” Johnson said of the bunker’s origins. “There are people out there who are preppers and nervous about what is happening in the economy and COVID and have motivation to do something like that.”

bnoble@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @BreanaCNoble