Record number of New York elites are having panic rooms installed in their ... trends now
New Yorkers are going on a paranoid spending spree.
'I've never been busier,' one of America's longest-running makers of high-end 'panic rooms' confessed this week.
Heavily fortified 'safe spaces,' some with electrified doorknobs, ballistic doors and facial-recognition locks, have become all the rage among Manhattan's elite.
At a starting price of $50,000, these custom-built panic rooms, complete with bulletproof night-vision gear, medical kits and food supplies, can be constructed to blend in invisibly with any building — from a stately old pre-war townhouse to a glassy penthouse loft.
But those prices can easily balloon up to $1 million or more for luxury apartments, as materials like blast-proof doors weighing thousands of pounds cost extra to ship.
Makers of these hidden rooms believe the spike in business came about during the anti-police-violence protests after the death of George Floyd in 2020 that saw unrest across New York City for months.
Heavily fortified 'safe spaces,' some with electrified doorknobs, ballistic doors and facial-recognition locks, have become all the rage among Manhattan's elite
'I've never been busier,' America's longest-running makers of high-end 'panic rooms,' Bill Rigdon, has confessed, as rich New Yorkers go on a paranoid spending spree. Above, a hidden armory of rifles designed by Rigdon's Arizona competitor Creative Home Engineering
'I hate to sound paranoid, but I don't trust the bodyguards. I don't trust security,' one panic room-maker said, justifying his high price. 'I don't trust anybody.'
David Vranicar, the owner of a Florida-based construction and design firm that specializes in panic rooms, Fortified Ballistic Security, is just one of many leaders in his industry who has noticed a boom in the city over the past year.
'New York has gotten really busy for us lately,' Vranicar told real estate site Curbed. 'People are not feeling safe the way they used to.'
Another maker of bespoke hidden rooms and secret passageways, Steve Humble of Creative Home Engineering in Arizona, traced the spike in New York-area business to the anti-police-violence protests after the death of George Floyd in 2020.
'That wave has kind of died down,' Humble said, 'but it was replaced in large part by the persistent uptick in violent crime in large cities like New York.'
While FBI data has shown a dramatic decrease in violent crime nationally, down 49 percent in total since 1993, with steep drops in robberies (-74 percent), aggravated assaults (-39 percent), murders and manslaughter (-34 percent) — public perception has spiked upward.
Over three quarters of Americans believe crime has gone up according to polling by Pew, fears stoked by waves of violent clashes between protestors and police and countless other shocking moments caught on tape and posted to social media.
