[Leon]

This is BOL 4. Me and my group have been eying it awhile now. It's viable, hidden and defensible. Not to mention fire resistant on the exterior and big enough to conceal several families. Water is a big one still at this location but if needed we could use the pond and filter/distill it. Best of all, even IF the cops show up and take issue, the worst they can do is ask me to leave. Chances are they can't actually do anything because the owner is about 2 million in the hole with uncle sam's taxes and fled back to India. The company that used to manage it told me they are no longer honoring their contract with the Indian national and have no intentions of salvaging the building due to damage and cost. I asked what would happen to it and they said it could drag out in probate for years and that it would not be a sound investment for them, they wash their hands of it. So for all practical purposes, it is fully and wholly abandoned. I even joked with the lady "So you care if I cut a chain and look around in there?" and she joked it was amazing someone hadn't broken in and squatted already. Tells me volumes, this place is just in a spot that nobody cares to look, it's the reason all the businesses failed. No traffic. Me likey.

Now, in this video you will see me go around back and look at a staircase before a pause and you hear me sniff. I smelled strong natural gas. Holy shit that gas leak was BLOWING not leaking BLOWING into the air. That could be a problem. Your thoughts? The compound itself is basically a fortress waiting to happen, with a hard butt and choke point for a front.

And by the way that alarm has been going off for almost five years, apparently the battery inside is nearly dead. The building has no outside power connection or phone lines that will work (as you can see by the box out back)

would you consider it as a BOL?

 

[BeefBallsBerry]

I would just be worried about a mob or drifters. Its wide open looks like they will have the upper ground advantage as well :/ ?

 

[Fuzzee]

It's a bad idea to post your BOL's in my opinion. From simple clues in the video I tracked down a relative location in a few minutes. Someone knows you may be there now and well supplied. No matter how tough you are, there's always someone tougher. If I can, anyone can find it.

 

[Meangreen]

I do believe sir that you have thought it out better than anyone.

 

[BigCheeseStick]

I'm thinking a good bump from any car bumper (even a car being pushed) will negate an entire glass block wall pretty easily. :/

I'd be concerned with the place shown being to big to be defensible. But that's just me.

 

[Nathan Jefferson]

I wouldn't consider it. Ok, I wouldn't at least consider it a BOL. I would consider it a refugee station...

I commend you on finding backups and don't want to dissuade you from doing so, but I think there should be a distinction of some sort. Just because the owner is in debt and halfway across the world doesn't mean that it's ok to just walk in and take over.

Would I do it if my family had no where else to go (We're refugees!), yes. Would I plan on it being a 'go to'? No. To me it just sounds too much like those people who say "I have guns, so I'll just take the food I need from other people.".

 

[Prepadoodle]

I might just roll in with my boys every Saturday and run Leon's Post Apocalypse Bazaar & Grill. Couple snipers in sandbagged positions on the roof, a few more walking around, clear the trees from the big parking lot, set up some booths, and rent the booths once a week in exchange for various trade goods. You could charge a little from each person and take home a truck load of food and other goodies every week.

Once you get it going, start renting the shops to local craftsman who would live in their shops; the blacksmith, maybe a clinic, power and electronics, gun shop, and other non-food stuff that doesn't go bad. By this time, you would have enlisted more grunts and could guard the place 24/7. I'm pretty sure this would involve peeing all the way around the property and some other stuff.

Then you start building the Thunder Dome! :-D

Just because the owner is in debt and halfway across the world doesn't mean that it's ok to just walk in and take over.

In the right situation, that's exactly what it means.

 

[Mic]

In the right situation, that's exactly what it means.

That's exactly what I was thinking. If the owner abandoned the place during the good times, in a SHTF situation, I'm seriously doubting it would matter.

 

[Nathan Jefferson]

In the right situation, that's exactly what it means.

In the right situation - ok. It does.

Just like stealing bread to feed your family - even the most pious person would do. Or should do.

But those whose plan is to go and steal bread regularly, instead of actually providing for themselves is wrong.

 

[Meangreen]

How about stealing from the government that caused the TSHTF?

Many moons ago I worked for the Federal Protective Service under GSA. For those of you familiar with the federal government knows that they don't per say own a building. It is maintained by the GSA and is usually leased by a private entity. For what ever reason back in the late 90's tons of Indians (Dot not feather) would buy up buildings just like the one pictured in this post and it would fall into disarray after they had fleeced as much money from it as possible. After which the US government would purchase it and it would become a new federal building. This included large apartment complexes, huge office buildings, and factories. The federal government would purchase but it would quickly sold to a private entity to lease back to the government.
For example if you remember the movie, "Traffic" the high rise used in the movie where the snitch got poisoned. That building was purchased by a private entity and GSA took control. The building was a dump and the people in the building were the worst of the worst, drug addicts, ex-cons, you name it. It was a long process of removing the people and finding them new places to live so that the building could be renovated and used as a federal building. As you can imagine after everything was done, the US government could have built a building for half the cost. In the time between purchase and renovation I was the federal officer dealing with the people living within the building and keeping people out.

The point of my story is this looks like one of those places or soon to be one of those places.

 

[Tundra Dweller]

I bet there are 1000's of folks that know its there.. All those trades guys.. all the city guys.. Id bet others have the same thing in mind..

 

[Leon]

Well here's my thoughts. You make some valid points, but the people in there would be me, ex military, all very well armed and good shots. The actual landscape is a little iffy but the thing about it is I could (and have) walked around all day long and never got noticed by people in the only remaining business (a grocery store). The history of this place is kind of sad, the Indians fleeced it like someone said above, it actually got passed hands a few times and someone obviously saw what had happened to all the other businesses back there and went screw it. There is also a sportstown building that was turned into a sports locker, those floundered bad and always did. There was also a rhodes furniture that floundered the same way. EVERY one of the units back there is a ghost town, and all the others along the front are too but a this end up furniture and a microcenter. But they are pretty far removed from that balley's fitness place. They all just dried up, just like the game store I worked at in high school. It's abandoned now. Sad. I think the main thing is street visibility, that spot had none. You can't even see it going to the grocery store. It's been chained off for decades.

Then the glass wall, YES that was what I was thinking too. Little push with a pickup is all it would take. But if you noticed the inside doors are solid and could be sealed with some angle iron. The glass doors on front we'd definitely have to do something about those, probably salvage some wood and refuse from across the parking lot and fortify it. The inside itself is a maze of saunas, open rooms, smaller rooms, raquetball rooms, machine rooms ect I find fascinating in their appeal to stop and choke up enemy personnel.

Lone drifters and mobs we're pretty sure we can handle, especially seeing as that's a low priority target if disguised well enough. I mean it's pretty unassuming and overgrown already. ::redsnipe::

The roof goes higher than it looks, there's a third level up there that would make for a great firing position, drop molotovs ect.

The back doors are pretty much secure, steel without handles so there's not much purchase for a truck to chain up and pull one free. Like you said, that front will be the first place they come and it's a nasty choke point. I kind of doubt anyone who would happen upon it would bring ladders and siege equipment like the purge. If they did we might have a little problem there. The windows have that reflective tint so we'd be able to observe them pretty low key in any event.

And yes, you could hold a thunderdome event right in the parking lot.

There is some sort of little cafeteria cafe thing in there that could be a bar ala Revolution style. Some quaint lanterns and a few tables...

BUT alas there are several of those buildings in the area, distribution warhouses, office parks the whole nine yards. This is like one good example but there's more, lots more. Id say just in that shopping center there are oh...about a hundred abandoned units. Turns out that shopping center got cut up into parts and sold off. All kinds of stuff from strips to single structures, an old kroger...all kinds. Funny enough one of the biggest but worst building complexes in town would be the police station. It is wide open on every side, BIG windows, no thought to security whatsoever. No fences no nothing. Glass doors.

 

[Tundra Dweller]

Im not trying to start a fight.. but.. say thirty others get there first and they have the ammo for a spray and pray day.. Would you be willing to use lots of ammo to get the place? Just something to think about...

 

[Inor]

Personally, I think the value of BO #4 is not the location or the facilities that it provides but the mindset. On this particular land, I think Tundra Dweller might be right. But that is irrelevant. The real value of your video (and the exercise behind it) is learning to think about what something CAN be used for rather than what it was designed to be used for. Just a thought.

 

[Deebo]

I would not hesitate to join you, if I was in Georgia..Infact I have the GPS to that location locked into my navigation system as of now...Just kidding, but it is Awesome. In Alb, NM there is a huge building I have my eyes on, just in case..