Money, power and a vacant lot
The Church of Scientology wanted it. So did the city of Clearwater, Fla. The lowest bidder got it.
CLEARWATER, Fla. — When the Church of Scientology secretly purchased the dilapidated 11-story Fort Harrison Hotel in this western Florida city in 1975, locals didn’t know what to make of their new neighbors.
It would be the following year before the church was publicly identified as the owner of the hotel, which would be renovated to become Scientology’s international headquarters. The church, meanwhile, began scooping up other prime properties — dozens of them, including entire blocks — throughout downtown Clearwater.
It is a tactic that the church has used elsewhere. Its purchases — like Scientology itself — are often controversial, surrounded by rumor and suspicion.
So it was in Clearwater, a city of 110,000 that is now Scientology’s international headquarters. County records show the church owns 66 properties in the city, where an estimated 12,000 Scientologists live. City officials have long grappled with fears that the church’s influence was growing too deep.
All that came to a head last month, when the city of Clearwater faced off with the church in a struggle over a strategically located parcel of vacant land. The city won, despite offering vastly less than the church was willing to pay. But the repercussions shook City Hall and the highest levels of the church.
Was the battle for this parcel of land an indication of the church’s unspoken intent to consolidate political power in Clearwater?
The Fort Harrison Hotel is located steps from City Hall, close to the downtown waterfront area, where the city is planning a 10-year, $55-million development called “Imagine Clearwater” aimed at revitalizing a forlorn area.
Just offshore, connected to downtown by a causeway, is the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, a nonprofit that draws about 800,000 visitors annually and is Clearwater’s top attraction after the city’s famed beaches. It also was at the center of the dispute between the city and the church.
The aquarium owned a 1.4-acre vacant lot that is bordered on three sides by City Hall and two church properties — the Fort Harrison Hotel and a 13-story condominium tower. Two years ago, the church became interested in buying it and building a pool and playground for its members.
But the aquarium, which is in the middle of a $54-million fundraising campaign to expand its marine rescue center, had agreed to sell the lot to the city. The small plot suddenly vaulted in value.
The church is one of the largest taxpayers in Pinellas County and is regarded as a good steward of its properties. A 2014 Florida State University study found the church brought $917 million into Clearwater that year. Still, many people are suspicious of Scientology.
The Fort Harrison Hotel is ringed with security cameras and is closed to the public, despite its three restaurants and ballroom. Several questionable deaths and hundreds of 911 calls from the building through the years haven’t helped the church’s image.
The city of Clearwater had various ideas in mind for the aquarium’s vacant lot, including a hotel, Mayor George Cretekos said. It was willing to pay $4.25 million, roughly the assessed value of the land. So was the church.
In early March, Scientology leader David Miscavige raised the church’s offer to $12.5 million. The aquarium said no, citing an agreement with the city.
On March 14, Miscavige met individually with Clearwater City Council members, offering a sweetener: The church would fund an $8-million renovation of storefronts and facades along Cleveland Street, a portion of which has many retail spaces sitting empty.
City leaders were resistant. “If they really wanted to help improve Cleveland Street, then why not just go do it?” Cretekos said.
In early April, the church again raised its offer, this time to $15 million, along with the $8-million Cleveland Street revitalization.
Again, the aquarium declined, prompting the church to question the aquarium board’s fiduciary responsibility.
On April 11, Miscavige held an invitation-only event on the Fort Harrison Hotel’s rooftop patio for prominent Clearwater figures. Also there were Scientology celebrities, including John Travolta, Kirstie Alley and pianist Chick Corea, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Miscavige gave a two-hour presentation, replete with graphics, citations of noteworthy architects and building consultants.
Bledar “Tony” Starova, who owns a pizzeria on Cleveland Street, was impressed.
“I liked the church’s plan, but I think the city should be the leader of these things,” he said.
On April 20, the City Council unanimously voted in favor of buying the plot for the original $4.25 million.
“We are satisfied with the outcome,” aquarium Chief Executive David Yates said. “We committed the lot to the city very early on and we stuck by that commitment.”
The church was not satisfied. Ben Shaw, a Scientology spokesman, wrote a letter to the Tampa Bay Times and called the City Council “arrogant” and the vote a case of “manifest obstruction.”
“Whose votes do not count? Whose money does not count? The bigotry against Scientologists is barefaced,” he said.
The church’s chief counsel, Monique Yingling, sent a letter to the Pinellas County Commission, urging it to block $26 million in tourism tax funds earmarked for the aquarium.
“Astoundingly, [the Clearwater Marine Aquarium] rejected $15 million in private funding, and is now essentially asking to recoup that amount from taxpayer funds!” she wrote.
On April 25, the commission approved the $26-million grant.
Shaw said the church, while disappointed, had moved on.
“The church was interested in buying a piece of land from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium; the aquarium sold the property to the city,” he said in an email. “That is the end of that story.”
Some downtown business owners, however, say the matter is far from dead. Church members, they believe, launched a boycott after the vote.
“The business people have been telling me they’re not coming into their stores,” City Councilman Bob Cundiff said.
Shaw said the business owners were wrong.
“There is absolutely no boycott of downtown businesses by church members,” he said. “There has never been a boycott.”