click to enlarge 1200x675 From time to time billionaires feel the need to recreate society from the ground up, remaking it in their own vision.
Fordlandia, created by Henry Ford in 1928 in Brazil is a good example, and from time to time we hear Alphabet’s CEO Larry Page talk buying an island and “set[ting] aside part of the world” for technological experiments without any regulatory or government oversight.
Now ex-Microsoft CEO Bill Gates is getting ready to make his own vision of future living real by buying up 25,000 acres of land in Arizona to create the City of the Future.
The “smart city” will be named Belmont and will feature up to 80,000 residential units.
“Belmont will create a forward-thinking community with a communication and infrastructure spine that embraces cutting-edge technology, designed around high-speed digital networks, data centers, new manufacturing technologies and distribution models, autonomous vehicles and autonomous logistics hubs,” Belmont Partners said in a news release.
3,800 acres will go towards the office, commercial and retail space and 470 acres will be used for public schools.
“Comparable in square miles and projected population to Tempe, Arizona, Belmont will transform a raw, blank slate into a purpose-built edge city built around a flexible infrastructure model,” said Belmont Properties.
The initial purchase of the land, about 45 minutes west of downtown Phoenix off I-10 near Tonopah, only cost $80 million, but I suspect a lot more money will be needed to bring the vision to full life.
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