Church of Scientology is slowly taking over a Florida city, has bought property worth $100m in just three years
CLEARWATER, FLORIDA: The Church of Scientology and companies run by its members have bought more than $100 million worth of property in downtown Clearwater, Florida, over the past three years for reasons that are currently unknown.
The Tampa Bay Times reported that it had reviewed more than a 1,000 deeds and business records, and interviewed more than 90 people, in their bid to track down the extent of the church's influence in the city, and found it owned, along with its members and companies, 185 properties that cover around 100 acres downtown in the city.
In all, it was found that 32 companies had bought 92 downtown properties since 2017 alone, with $99 million of the total $103 million spent on said properties paid out in cash. Of the two dozen-odd people listed as operating the companies, most are Scientologists.
While Clearwater may seem like a seemingly odd choice, the religion does have a historic link with the city. In 1975, its creator L. Ron Hubbard had bought a historic hotel in downtown Clearwater with a vision of making the city the spiritual home for his religion.
Then, in the 1990s, a Scientology magazine listed the church's goals for 2000, with chief amongst them reading, "Make Clearwater known as the first Scientology city in the world."
They seem to have succeeded in that goal too, with the city now described as an "international Scientology Mecca," and a destination for its elite members - celebrity advocates such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta have traveled to Clearwater to engage in the highest levels of the church's spiritual training.
The recent flurry of purchases is said to have been kicked off by tensions between the church and the Clearwater City Council that erupted due to disagreements over a proposed downtown redevelopment project. The council interfered with a land deal that the church requested, resulting in the latter stopping all communications with the city.
In response to this recent report on the property buying spree, the church said it had 2,300 staff members working in Clearwater and that there was nothing wrong about Scientologists wanting to live in the same city as its spiritual headquarters.
Church spokesman Ben Shaw told the Associated Press that the Tampa Bay Times had an "unending obsession" with Scientology and had "torpedoed" the church's efforts to revitalize Clearwater's downtown.
However, all five city council members said they doubted the purchases were unrelated. "The logical conclusion is Scientology must have some sort of a game plan in mind, but they're not public with what it is", said City Council member Hoyt Hamilton. "Typically, when people buy commercial real estate, they move forward with construction or redevelopment. That's not happening with almost any of these properties."