$14.7M Atlanta home with bunker called safest in America

new york — Call it the Wayne Manor of the South.

The cream-colored, colonnaded facade of the Rice House, situated on 3.5 acres just outside Atlanta, hides far more than a private theater, bowling alley, and infinity swimming pool.

The master and guest bedrooms have ballistic doors that can withstand fire from an AK-47 assault rifle. The car vault is large enough to hold 30 vehicles and has an entrance designed to be concealed by a waterfall. Secret doors lead to a 15,000-squarefoot bunker in which an embattled owner could conceivably hole up for years, with off-grid power and water drawn from three artesian wells drilled 1,000 feet into the ground. The house had its own security architect who spent two decades designing secure buildings for the US Department of Justice. Listing materials boast that it is “one of, if not the, safest home in America.”

“This is a home where you could put a $20 million painting on the wall and sleep comfortably at night,” said listing broker Paul Wegener, of Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty. “The same goes for your family.”

The entrepreneur who owns the Rice House spent six years and some $30 million to build his 36,000-square-foot fortress of an estate, Wegener told Bloomberg. And that was mostly for kicks.

“He said to me, ‘If anyone wants to get me, they can find me at Chick-fil-A,’” Wegener said. It was something of an intellectual exercise to create an impenetrable home, a personal Batcave that the owner could peel his Bugatti Veyron out of.

It was just relisted for $14.7 million, a drop from the original $17.5 million. The estate also needs to be finished, which Wegener estimates would cost an additional $3 million to $5 million. — Bloomberg