Five-deck Marquette 'floating community' to recreate Mark Twain's era on American waterways
February 2011
News
www.dailyindia.com
Marquette, a luxury 'river city' worth 109 million dollars, would reportedly cruise on America's waterways all year round, bringing back memories of the Mark Twain era.
This kind of floating communities were a common sight on the Mississippi in the 19th century, which used to ply up and down the mighty river and develop trade in the process. But now such a view can also be witnessed in the 21st century.
The five-deck Marquette will be a floating village with swimming pools, restaurants and its own 18-hole golf course. It also includes 180 apartments, each with a private balcony, the Daily Mail reports.
The floating boat is a brainchild of David Nelson, a marine developer who has lived on board his own houseboat in Minnesota for 19 years.
The 600 feet long development, which has been described as a floating 'condo community', would reportedly cruise along 6,600 miles of America's coastal waterways and rivers.
Considering a route that experiences the best weather conditions throughout the year, Nelson has planned that his masterpiece would cruise along the Gulf of Mexico in the winter and up through 18 states, reaching St Paul in Minnesota in the summer, the paper said.
Interested people have been given the option of buying a condo permanently, or for just half the year, spending either the summer or winter on board. The floating community would have television for recreation, and telephone signal and high-speed Internet connection for emergency purposes, it added.
Two buses would reportedly follow the Marquette's journey, allowing passengers to visit the 155 cities on the route, including Memphis, Nashville and Chicago.
Nelson and his fellow developer David Tout are planning to fund the development themselves because the banks have refused to venture on a risky project as such.
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