The Fort Harrison Hotel, Where Scientologists Check In... But Minds and Wallets Check Out - Page 3
The Crystal Ballroom on the 10th and 11th floors, once a fashionable spot for high school proms, has been completely rebuilt and its patterned wooden floor restored, said Bob Wright, a Scientology staffer overseeing construction.
Church staffers made thousands of custom wood and plaster moldings at Scientology's local wood mill and workshop.
That's a fascinating bit of insight. Scientology did a study to determine people's perceptions of their cult in Clearwater and found most people still consider them a strange cult. That's a pretty clear signal that something isn't right with a group if after 15 years of essentially taking over a town, your neighbors still eye you with suspicious. Also noteworthy is the extent of the renovations. That much skilled labor would cost millions upon millions, but when you factor in the expensive materials used, including gold-leafed moldings, marble floors, just to name a few, the $40million spent seems far too little.
Chalk that up to the slave labor force supplied by the Sea Org members who are paid a fraction of what a contractor would earn, and the 100 hours+ a week worked by each individual explains why the building was renovated so quickly. Not so for the huge monstrosity which sits directly across from the Fort Harrison and also a Scientology owned structure, the "Super Power Building."
Construction on the Flag Building began in 1999, and it was supposed to open in 2002. Work stopped in 2003 and has been at a standstill ever since.One of the county's largest buildings, it is stuccoed, trimmed and painted on the outside, but empty on the inside. A big hole in the building's northwest corner draws curious glances from drivers on Alt. U.S. 19.
Clearwater officials get asked about it all the time.
One would think this kind of unfinished construction would be a major sticking point with city officials. Who wants this kind of eye-sore at the center of their business district? It hasn't gone unnoticed by residents or those issuing code violations:
The "Super Power" building, is a seven-story, 380,000-square-foot empty shell that encompasses a whole city block. The church gets fined $250 a day for not bringing it up to code, and the fines now total $245,000.Numerous promises to finish the building have come and gone, but church officials insist that this time it really is next on their to-do list. At this point, church architects and Clearwater building officials say they're going over some final details.
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