Quote:And while I suspect that Ireland would allow some Unreal Estate launches just because the UK doesn't like Unreal Estate, the Irish are possessive of their homes...
In practice. It tends to be the opposite. Both countries tend to use each other as guinea pigs, and borrow legislative concepts regularly. Because Britain doesn't allow it, isn't a good reason for Ireland to allow it. Both countries are closer than they are further apart. Political objections will be more along the lines of 'Theft from future generations' and they can get quite a bit of steam behind that because it's very close to the current message of 'Theft from future generations' as applied to the banking crisis. Never mind that most of those future generations have already left for Canada or Australia....
Buying and moving the buildings (Including foundations) might be easier. Building new prefabs would be easier still, if that was the case. The only reason you want to do this with actual estates is because you've got a whole prebuilt settlement, biomass and green areas all in one bubble. The only way this makes sense is through a complete scoop-up... endome the estate and some of its surroundings and leave a new watersports park behind.
Come to think of prefabs, that's an interesting concept. Dig a ground-mould. Lay the foundations for the bottom of the dome. Backfill with quarried material and topsoil. Build on top of that - maintaining some green area. Add something to make it fly. Then close of the top with a hemisphere geodesic. Send it to space. Start the next one. Open up a factory somewhere building them and the IDA will love you for giving people work. Set up a sales office somewhere like, oh, Mars and you won't even have to pay tax on whatever profits it generates. Which also neatly sidesteps the Taisce people.
Whoever invests in that could make a killing if it takes off.
I still think moving down to Detroit might be the better option, rather than moving Detroit up. It's big. It has access to the States. It's cheap. And it's desperate for cash. It's a crack in the door to lever open access to the big American markets, setting up US sales' subsidiaries and the like. It could be the catalyst for a defrost in America when they see how much cash the city rakes in from being a business gateway. Or for the rest of the country to cripple Detroit economically by witholding critical funding from Cities/States that do business with space to ram home their own pet policies. One or the other, depending on how cynical you are.
And you won't have to deal with the EPA and every other federal and State agency involved.... along with historical preservation societies and the like.
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?