Growing up one of my all-time favorite movies was The Ghostbusters; it is an instant classic. The movie has excellent talent starring some of our favorite comedy stars- Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, and also starring Sigourney Weaver, Ernie Hudson, and Annie Potts.
I couldn’t get enough of watching the cartoon series The Real Ghostbusters as a child. Although I could never figure out why they all had different hair colors than they had in the film. Seriously, Egon had some big curly blond hair and bright red glasses, now Harold Ramis did have some big hair in the movie but I don’t exactly remember his hair being bleach blonde. Well, putting aside the weird hair styles I just loved everything Ghostbusters.
The Ghostbusters movie is pure 1980’s and is known for its classic moments as well as its iconic settings. We were all introduced to proton packs, a PKE Meter (ghost detector), an old ambulance turned into Ecto 1 (the Ghostbuster mobile), a ghost containment unit, and of course the Firehouse turned into The Ghostbusters headquarters.
One of the more notable settings in the movie has to be The Firehouse. The Ghostbusters took full advantage of all this building had to offer them as their headquarters; and have a little fun like- sounding the alarm and sliding down the pole when called to bust a ghost. The Firehouse is an important part of the film; it is a place where they sleep, it holds their ghost containment unit, their entire ghost fighting equipment, and it is their primary point of contact.
This brings about an interesting question, what is The Ghostbuster’s Firehouse worth? Well the good people at the real estate website Movoto sought out an answer to this question by creating an interesting and informative infographic of what The Ghostbuster’s Firehouse would really cost in today’s real estate market. Please see the infographic below:
It is a very interesting infographic of the Firehouse’s valuation. The Ghostbusters Firehouse is a fictional place but in order to evaluate the value of the nearly $16 million Ghostbuster Firehouse; Movoto had to first take into account what rooms were available in the building. Next, the Firehouse has three levels, the Ecto 1 garage area, the reception area, Peter Venkman’s back office, a basement and a sub-basement where the ghost containment unit is held.
Also, there is a kitchen, dining area, a room for Egon’s experiments, bathroom and showers, and a room for sleeping. Egon gave us the square footage in the movie at 9,642.55 square feet. Movoto evaluated the price per square footage in New York to be $1,630 per square foot. The final calculation as shown in the infographic for The Ghostbuster’s Firehouse Headquarters is $15,717,356.50.
Ray Stanz (Dan Ackroyd) had to mortgage his house in order to buy The Firehouse, in today’s economy let’s hope that Ghost busting is a lucrative as they thought. Although, this was 30 years ago; maybe we can take some value off for inflation, and for being an empty run down facility; furthermore, how many people are clamoring to buy an old Firehouse any way.
Well if The Ghostbusters had been real, they can take comfort in the fact that the value of the headquarters had risen by a significant amount; if they kept the building in good condition maybe they could sell it back to the city for a profit if they ever needed to get rid of the building, and busting ghost stops being a lucrative business model.
Featured Image: "Brickstuff Lighting Kit for the LEGO Ghostbusters Firehouse HQ" by brickstuff is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
