It looks like a villain’s lair or a distant planet found far, far away, but SubTropolis is very real. Located 150 feet below Kansas City, and making use of a 270-million-year-old limestone deposit, this is the World’s Largest Underground Business Complex.
Over 1,600 people work in the labyrinth, which is dug into the Bethany Falls limestone mine. The limestone was removed by the room and pillar method, burrowing out roads and rooms that make it an underground city. It already has millions of square feet of usable workspace, and the more they mine, the more it expands.
It was the 1960s brainchild of Lamar Hunt, the local businessman and sports team owner whose family is still at the helm of the Kansas City Chiefs. It has concrete grounds and smoothed, 16-foot high ceilings. Each of the pillars are on 65-foot centers and are found 40 feet apart.
The businesses working in SubTropolis vary massively, from standard storage companies, to book suppliers, to large-scale factory lines and car manufacturers. Year-round temperatures range between 65 and 70 °F (18 and 21 °C), which can be a strong incentive for working there.
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All of it is accessible via street level, and you don’t need to work there to drive in and take a look around.
A similar complex stretches under Louisville in Kentucky. Known as Mega Cavern, The former limestone mine is not quite as large as SubTropolis, but is classified as a building and at 4,000,000 square feet, is technically the largest building in the entire state. You can also take a driving tour of Mega Cavern.
