"Revitalized Downtown Clearwater seeking to expand upward"

St. Petersburg Times, 3/16/2011

The city council today voted in favor of raising the maximum floor level in future downtown corridor construction from 20 to 50 stories.

Pressure from developers, condominium buyers and businesses has caused a rethinking once again of construction limits in the downtown area.

As property has been completely filled in with stores, high-priced condominiums, and other retail outlets, the only place left to go is up.

The boom in downtown Clearwater has continued since 2007. Many attribute it to the income the city has derived from the $1 million-per-day fine against Scientology's still incomplete "Super Power" building, across from the Ft. Harrison Hotel.

Those funds have been funneled into inventive and successful revitalization projects.

"I don't understand why they don't just complete it," city treasurer Mark Dallara said of Scientology's shell of a building. "But if they want to keep indirectly contributing to the community, that's fine by me," he said.

Ben Shaw, representative for Scientology, said "we just have one minor detail to work out before we begin the finishing touches in a few months." He said the main sticking point was whether the specially designed ashtrays should be glass or plastic. "Once we work out this technical detail, we'll have the project done in no time," he said.

"We've heard this all before, year after year," commented Jesse Prince, mayor of Clearwater. "That's why we had to keep increasing the fine from the original $250 per day to the current $1 million per day," he said. When asked why he thought the project was not simply completed, Prince said "I think it's a white elephant. They don't need it, they can't staff it, and they certainly won't want to tear it down. So it sits as it is, empty."

A recent public opinion poll in the Tampa Bay showed that 99.4% of the respondents had a negative view of Scientology. When further asked where they got their information about Scientology, 89% said it was from the wildly successful 24-part South Park series on Comedy Central dealing with Scientology and it's movie stars.

"That series has been so helpful," said Katie Holmes, former wife of actor Tom Cruise and current outspoken critic of Scientology. "In fact, the first in the series, 'Oh my God, they've killed Lisa!' was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I left Scientology right after that aired," she said.

Holmes now lives in a high-rise on Drew St. in downtown Clearwater, and owns and manages the Bang and Olufsen mega-store next to the world-famous Xenu's Diner owned by ex-staff of Scientology. Several stars critical of Scientology have invested in what they see as a booming economic engine with no ceiling in sight.

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