‘Freedom Ship’: Florida firm wants to build $10 billion floating city

A Florida-based company has decided to proceed with plans to build a $10 billion floating city called “Freedom Ship,” which would be home to at least 25,000 people.

Freedom Ship International said that if they get enough interest and capital they will build the city, running 25 stories high and one mile long, and it would circle the globe every two years, an NBC affiliate in Miami reported.

The project was put on hold when the economic recession hit, but team members decided to give it another go in memory of its lead architect, who passed away this year.

“That inspired members of the old team,” Project Director Roger Gooch told NBC. “We want to see if there is an interest to bring his vision to reality, bringing it back to the interest.”

According to the website, Freedom Ship, unlike a cruise ship, is proposed to be “a unique place to live, work, retire, vacation, or visit.

The proposed voyage would continuously circle the globe, covering most of the world’s coastal regions,” the site says.

In addition to an airport for small aircraft, the ship would house “residential space, a library, schools, and a first-class hospital in addition to retail and wholesale shops, banks, hotels, restaurants, entertainment facilities, casinos, offices, warehouses, and light manufacturing and assembly enterprises. Finally, this concept would include a wide array of recreational and athletic facilities, worthy of a world-class resort, making Freedom Ship a veritable ’Community on the Sea.’”

Freedom Ship does not have a launch date and its fruition is dependent on capital of investors.

Mr. Gooch said that the company has received strong support locally and internationally since the decision was made to move forward with the project.

“It’s a land-based community on a waterborne platform,” he told NBC. “It will be for vacation, seasonal living, businesses, to go to school — everything that’s offered on a land-based community.”