Florida man's $10 billion plan to build 'floating city' for the wealthy is 'a live project again'

Roger Gooch, the director and vice-president of Freedom Ship International, announced today that its titular project, the Freedom Ship, will resume now that the economic crisis has passed.

It "now looks as if it is a live project again," Gooch told The Telegraph's Hannah Strange. "The Freedom Ship will "be the largest vessel ever built, and the first ever floating city." The city will cost approximately $10 billion to construct, but Gooch believes that with the economy recovering, he can secure the funding.

The ship will be 25 stories high, over one mile long, and will feature an airport to ferry passengers and residents on and off the boat. Because of its size, it will not be able to enter ports, and will have to be moored off the coastlines of the cities it travels to. According to Sarasota, Florida engineer who designed it, Norman Nixon, the Freedom Ship would circumnavigate the globe once every two years.

When Nixon first proposed the project in 1999, many accused him of attempting to create a mobile tax shelter for the wealthy. "We are not trying to create an independent country. We are not building a tax haven," he said at the time. "The real reason we are building Freedom Ship is to have fun, make some money and see the world."

Condominiums on the ship will be sold once the initial funding for its construction has been secured. One bedroom units will start at $150,000, with luxury units selling for anywhere between $7 million and $10 million.

Watch a short video about the re-designed Freedom Ship below.