FILTHY RICH
Inside the abandoned billion-dollar ghost town of crumbling mansions left to rot before anyone even moved in
AN ABANDONED ghost town that was supposed to cost $1.6billion hasn’t been touched since 2008 when its developers landed themselves in big trouble.
When the idea was launched in 2006, several investors promised to spend a whopping amount on the town advertised as a rich man’s dream.
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The 900-acre development sits near Table Rock Lake in Missouri, and has been nicknamed the McMansion's estate.
It would've been fully kitted out with a huge shopping mall, a 390-room hotel and America’s second-largest indoor water park, alongside dozens of enormous townhouses built like mansions.
It was heavily supported by former Missouri Governor, Matt Blunt, because of its promise to help the area through major improvements to traffic, roads, healthcare and water treatment facilities.
The governor even went as far as telling the builders to “start their engines” through a bullhorn.
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Shops, a conference centre, a museum about the local Native American population, a golf course and a marina were also in the plans as well as large holiday homes that proved to be the idea’s big downfall.
The eerie town now only has 13 crumbling mansions left with them sitting there today slowly decaying.
Most of the windows are smashed and doors ripped from their hinges, leaving an ugly sight for what was meant to be a millionaire’s dream town.
The Indian Ridge Resort Community in the Ozarks region was abandoned after the 2008 financial crisis hit investors hard.
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Construction work came to a halt with only a handful of buildings finished.
After the crisis, questions began getting asked over the legitimacy of the development group in charge.
The original lead developer Jim Shirato, was heavily fined for violating state laws and five others were arrested over real estate fraud where they lied to get loans.
According to local news outlet the illegal loans were to pay for the buildings after they were built, so they could be sold on as luxury holiday homes.
Three of these got prison sentences up to five years and the other two, a married couple from Colorado, faced probation over the sneaky attempt to get richer.
From money laundering and fraud to dirty water, the developers also got done for polluting Table Rock Lake and were slapped with a $125,000 fine for breaking state and federal clean water laws.
The site was bought in 2012 by the Federal Deposit Insurance Company for just $3.1m and new developers Brookwood Group purchased it three years later.
The Ridge at Table Rock Lake became the first genuine idea the new owners had of using the massive underappreciated space.
In a similar idea to the original McMansion project, the plan is to turn the ghost town into a livelier place with hundreds of luxury homes, healthcare facilities and entertaining and essential shops.
The 2018 concept hasn’t started yet but is due to soon.
The Ozarks sprawling, mountainous region’s rocky history seems to be in safe hands with the developers looking forward to the new start.
Their website reads: “With 9 million visitors annually to the area, this property is uniquely situated to benefit from the broad local, regional, and national market that plays, works, and lives in Branson, Missouri.”
Its ideal location, visible from Route 76, has meant people spot the creepy location from a far and up to nine million curious tourists end up in the ruins each year.
Something the Brookwood Group hope to capitalise on.
The spooky town went viral recently when TikTok user posted a video of the broken buildings, raking in more than 2.4 million likes and 25,000 comments.
Lots of people called it "crazy" and were left wondering why its taken so long for someone to rebuild it.
Several other ghost towns have been left across the world, never to be used.
One of these is Kolmanskop in the Namibian desert.
The once bustling diamond mining town is now just a tourist site after the houses were left buried knee deep in sand.
A stunning island off the coat of Greece was left abandoned for years due to its dark past of housing lepers.
It was known as the “Island of the Living Dead”, and was home to nearly 400 inhabitants.
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Haunting images have also been recently released of the inside of an abandoned city built in a hollow skyscraper.
The building in Johannesburg was infamous when criminals used the skyscraper for drug dealing and prostitution.
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