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Inside Abandoned Buildings That Worth Billions | Olympic Stadiums, Hotels, Palace - YouTube
Channel: Luxury Anytime
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Top 10 Abandoned Buildings Worth Billions
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or else youâll spend the night in a haunted
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house.
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Unless you want that.
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You would think that if a grand mansion or
humungous skyscraper had tonnes of money put
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into its construction that the people who
owned it would want to make sure it stays
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busy and intact.
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As youâll see with todayâs video, there
are in fact so many buildings all over the
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world that have gone to ruin and look like
ghosts of their former selves.
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These are the top 10 abandoned buildings worth
billions.
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Not all of these buildings are old either,
youâll be shocked at how some places fall
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into disrepair in a matter of years.
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Stick around to the end of the video to find
out which ones.
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10.
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Airport of the Gods
Our first stop is the Hellinikon International
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Airport in Athens, Greece.
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At one time it was handling 12 million passengers
per year and was the aviation center of Greece,
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but has since fallen into disorder.
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The airport started life as a Luftwaffe base
during World War 2 when Greece was occupied
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by the Germans, but after the war, the US
Air Force came in and used it as a European
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base of operations until 1991.
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For a decade afterward, it was the main airport
of Athens and was the port of call for Hollywood
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celebrities and heads of state who came to
visit Athens.
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Imagine trying to find your suitcase and bumping
into Jackie Kennedy!
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Since the opening of the Athens Eleftherios
Venizelos International Airport in 2001, Hellinikon
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fell by the wayside and all those Boeing 747
Olympic Airline planes that once flew above
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the Mediterranean were grounded for all time.
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In 2020, plans to rejuvenate the Hellenikon
area by turning the former airport into the
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Hellinikon Metropolitan Park finally began.
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Costing a staggering $9 billion, the park
will have luxury homes, hotels, a casino,
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a marina, and the Inspire Athens Tower, which
will be Greeceâs tallest building.
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Hopefully, when people are next flying to
Athens, theyâll be able to see Hellenikon
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in all its glory as they land!
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9.
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Selma
Selma is the kind of plantation home you would
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find in something like Gone with the Wind,
dating back to 1700 and sitting on 212 acres
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of land.
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Thatâs the same size as just over 150 football
fields!
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In 1902 it was refurnished by Elijah Brokenborough
White and throughout the 1920s it was a local
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hotspot for grand balls and dinner parties
attended by politicians and celebrities of
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the time.
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The house was one of the very first to have
an intercom system, so if you needed a butler
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to bring you a nice cold glass of iced tea
they could get it to you pronto!
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White also bred champion racehorses there
which must have been great for the horses
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since they had all those acres of land to
prance around in!
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Whiteâs family held onto the house until
1970 when it was sold to the Epperson family,
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but they sold the property in 1999 to Peter
J ter Maaten.
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Maaten, for whatever reason, did nothing with
Selma and was left to be reclaimed by the
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Virginia forest she resides in.
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Vandals and robbers looted and ransacked Selma
over time but in 2016, Sharon Virts bought
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the property for just over $1 million and
has vowed to restore it to its full glory.
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Weâd sure love to visit Selma when sheâs
had her millionaire makeover!
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8.
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Swannanoa
Next up is an Italian renaissance-style mansion
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in Swannanoa, Virginia that has been passed
around a great number of inhabitants since
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its construction in 1912.
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It cost $2 million, which adjusted for inflation
would be $51 million today.
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Just think of all the amazing furnishings
one could buy with that money!
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It took eight years to build and 300 artisans
but eventually, the house was owned by Major
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James H. Dooley, a philanthropist who used
it as a summer vacation home.
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What a vacation this guy mustâve had.
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The house was built with marble floors and
wall panels, gold plumbing fixtures, and a
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4000-piece stained-glass window of Dooleyâs
wife which would cost $64,000 in todayâs
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money!
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After Dooley died in 1924, the house went
from being a country club to a New Age university
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and finally to the Russell Museum until 1998
when the owners, the Dulaney family, struggled
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to renovate the property.
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It is sometimes a venue for weddings but most
of the time the mansion sits empty just waiting
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for the Dulaneyâs to finish renovating when
it can become a vibrant property once again.
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7.
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Communist Crib
When you think of the Soviet Union, you certainly
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donât think of the words âlavishâ or
âluxuryâ but thatâs exactly the kind
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of lifestyle that President Viktor Yanukovych
of Ukraine led between 2002 and 2014.
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Mezhyhirya Residence was the state home of
Yanukovych and represented the complete opposite
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of the communist regime that the rest of Ukraine
was under at the time.
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Knocking down the Soviet-style buildings before
it, Yanukovych hired the Finnish firm Honka
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to build a five-story palace that featured
every extravagance you could imagine from
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a collection of vintage sports cars to a private
zoo!
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The residence in total cost close to $10 million.
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There are crystal chandeliers, each worth
$100,000, a marble staircase at $430,000,
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and even doors that cost $64,000.
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Imagine spending five figures just to have
the best doors in your house possible.
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Most of us would be happy with a simple wooden
slab with a door handle, but not President
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Viktor!
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Since 2014, Yanukovych has been hiding in
Russia so his home has no owner.
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The new Ukrainian government, not wanting
a great house to go to waste, turned it into
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a museum about Yanukovych and his wild luxurious
lifestyle.
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Say what you like about the Soviet Union,
but at least Viktor knew how to spend money.
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6.
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Bamboo Palace
Letâs swap one authoritarian leader for
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another, this time the President of Zaire
between 1967 and 1997, Mobutu Sese Seko.
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Now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Zaire was once a dictatorship under Seko,
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and like Yanukovych, before he enjoyed spending
money like it was going out of fashion.
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His private home, known as the Bamboo Palace,
was a $100 million complex dubbed âthe Versailles
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of the Jungleâ.
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To put it in perspective, thatâs a third
of what the actual Versailles cost to build.
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Talk about high aspirations.
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If you were a fan of classic art, then Mobutu
had you covered.
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In the Bamboo Palace, he had genuine Monet
and Renoir paintings hanging on the walls
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with 18th Century French furniture and interior
design across the entire building.
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You also had 700 staff to dote on you all
day and night.
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When Mobutu was exiled in 1997, the Bamboo
Palace was raided and looted of its precious
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belongings, leaving the rest of the complex
to become overgrown with jungle plants and
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wildlife.
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On the bright side, at least any lions or
elephants nearby have a great place to relax.
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!
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5.
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Not Quite Downton Abbey
So far, weâve been to Greece, Africa, and
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Eastern Europe.
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Things are only going to get more interesting
from here so stick around to the end of the
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video!
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Letâs leave the dictators for a while and
go somewhere a little more pastoral.
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In the coastal town of Abergele, Wales is
Kinmel Hall, the kind of grand British estate
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you could see a PBS period drama taking place
in.
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It was originally owned by the Hughes family,
a humble farming family who got lucky thanks
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to building a copper mine on their land and
amassing a fortune.
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This money was put into building the house,
known as a calendar house because it has 365
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windows and 122 rooms, modeled after Versailles
and Hampton Court.
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The Hughes family might have been commoners
but they certainly had taste.
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Between the 1920s and 1970s, the house was
leased to other families, became a school,
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and later a Christian conference center before
being abandoned altogether for many years.
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Acer Properties Ltd.
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BVI bought the estate in 2011 for $2 million
hoping to turn it into a lavish hotel but
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nothing has come of it since.
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Letâs hope that the current owners get their
act together someday and finally whip up Kinmel
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Hall into a home worthy of its history once
again.
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4.
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Musical Manor
Another British manor house next, this time
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not used as a house at all but as a recording
studio.
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Hook End Manor in Checkendon, England may
be dilapidated now but once upon a time a
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whoâs who of rock nâ roll royalty walked
through its halls to produce some amazing
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music.
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Built in 1580 for the Bishop of Reading and
at one point an insane asylum, Hook End eventually
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fell into the hands of Alvin Lee, lead singer
of the band Ten Years After, who turned the
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houseâs barn into a recording studio.
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David Gilmour of Pink Floyd acquired Hook
End in 1980 and used it to record The Final
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Cut.
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Then in 1986, Frankie Goes to Hollywood producer
Trevor Horn bought the property and turned
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it into a musicianâs paradise where the
likes of The Smiths, The Cure, and the Manic
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Street Preachers recorded their hit albums.
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Since 2009, the house was abandoned despite
Mark White purchasing it for $15 million.
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Wallpaper was peeling off the walls and there
was damp all over, but now White is reigniting
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the musical fires and investing properly into
Hook End once again.
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Hereâs hoping some more amazing albums get
recorded there!
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3.
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Pop Star Paradise
Back in the 1980s, Michael Jackson truly was
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on top of the world, he was the biggest pop
star on the planet and he could afford to
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live just about anywhere he liked.
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In 1983, he decided to buy a ranch in Los
Olivos, California, and created one of the
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most iconic celebrity homes ever.
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Named Neverland Ranch after Peter Pan, Jacksonâs
ranch purportedly cost him nearly $20 million
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to buy.
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Thatâs just a fraction of the $138 million
he made with the album Thriller so he clearly
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didnât have to save up for it!
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Neverland was fitted with its own theme park,
arcade, a private zoo, and even two separate
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railroads to travel all around the complex.
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It was everything a child could wish for,
which in 2003 would become darkly ironic.
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During Jacksonâs child abuse scandal, the
FBI searched every corner of Neverland for
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evidence which in turn destroyed Jacksonâs
love of the place.
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In 2006, all the staff was dismissed and after
Jacksonâs death in 2009 the ranch was abandoned
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entirely, left to become a husk of its former
self.
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It was put up for sale many times but no sale
ever happened until 2019 when billionaire
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Ron Burkle purchased the land for $22 million.
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What Burkle plans to do with the land we donât
know but weâre certain itâll have none
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of the child-like wonder of what Jackson brought
to Neverland
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2.
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Hotel of Doom
If you saw our video on North Koreaâs Hotel
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of Doom then youâll know exactly why it
fits right in this list.
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For those unfamiliar, the Ryugyong Hotel was
an attempt by North Korean leader, Kim Il-Sung
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to put his country on the world stage.
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It was to be the financial and entertainment
center of North Korea but neither of these
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things would come to pass.
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Between a famine that struck the country in
the 1990s and the lack of financing available
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to properly construct the hotel, Ryugyong
remains to this day an empty concrete shell
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in the heart of Pyongyang.
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As of today, the hotel cost $750 million to
build!
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Thatâs a lot of money for a hotel that hasnât
had a single guest but it can lay claim to
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the title of the tallest unoccupied building
in the world, standing at just over 1000ft.
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Thereâs always the possibility that the
Ryugyong will open its doors one day, but
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until then maybe try the Four Seasons instead.
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1.
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Olympics
Our number one spot had to go somewhere pretty
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special, but instead of one place in particular
weâve gone with a plethora of Olympic stadiums.
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Why have we done this, you ask?
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Well, the Olympics are held all over the world
and nearly every major city has built stadiums
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and gymnasiums specifically to host this grand
international event.
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However, what happens after the games are
over?
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In the case of some cities, their stadiums
are abandoned and never used again.
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And these stadiums arenât cheap either.
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The Pyeongchang Winter Games in 2018 and the
Rio Summer Games in 2016 both cost nearly
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$13 billion!
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Thatâs enough to build the North Korean
Hotel of Doom seventeen times over!
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In Rio, many of the buildings were left to
crumble into ruin, meanwhile, the Aquatics
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Centre has had a bone-dry swimming pool for
years now.
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The Beijing Summer Games of 2008 cost an eye-watering
$39 billion but if you want to know where
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their mascots Nini, YingYing, and Beibei are,
check behind the disused shopping mall.
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The Athens Summer Games of 2004 cost Greece
approximately $11 billion but their financial
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crash soon after left the stadiums to ruin
with overgrown plant life taking over what
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was once the central stadium.
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Itâs true that the Olympics can cost a pretty
penny for any country that wants to host them
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but hereâs hoping that future venues get
a bit more care and respect put into them
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after the athletes take home their medals.
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Outro
Were there any abandoned buildings we forgot
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to add?
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Let us know in the comments and thanks again
for watching this video.
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Subscribe to our channel and remember, you
always have a choice.
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Choose Luxury Anytime.
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