A Church of Scientology-backed $50 million entertainment center in downtown Clearwater cleared an early hurdle Thursday, after lengthy public comment and City Council debate.
In a 3-2 vote Thursday, the City Council gave initial approval to transfer portions of two public roadways and an alleyway for the roughly 80,000-square-foot entertainment complex.
The Cleveland Street Alliance, a company made up of the Church of Scientology, some of its parishioners and development professionals, announced earlier this year its plans for the project. It is working with Texas-based Evo Entertainment, which would operate what it has billed as its flagship site.
The group says it will include the world’s largest movie screen, in addition to bowling, arcade games and dining.
The church submitted its requests for parts of Grove and Laura streets, an alley and the city parcel through a limited liability company, Myrtle Development.
After more than an hour of public comment, the council voiced sharp disagreement over the decision.
For the council members in support of the requests — David Allbritton, Mike Mannino and Ryan Cotton — securing a privately funded development of its magnitude for Clearwater was a no-brainer for bringing business to downtown.
“The attitude of trying to get in the way of positive development is astounding to me,” Cotton said.
The council members who voted against it — Mayor Bruce Rector and Lina Teixeira — reiterated that they were not against the project itself, but didn’t understand why public streets had to close.
“We’re being very creative in building the building,” Rector said. “It’s a little bit challenging to understand, with the amount of money, why it’s impossible to be creative on working around keeping Laura open in some way.”
Allbritton said he was “perplexed” with Rector and couldn’t imagine any of the other mayors he has worked with not supporting a proposal like this.
“You’re our mayor. You should be bending over backwards for a $50 million investment into our downtown,” he said. “But you’re not doing it. I don’t think you’re doing your job.”
The church, which has its international spiritual headquarters downtown, said in its application it needs these pieces of land to make a contiguous site and provide a contractually required 400 parking spaces.
In an internal review, some city staff had concerns about the requests, including a loss of public parking and potential effect on traffic. The parking division manager suggested a garage instead. Planning and Development Director Lauren Matzke said even if the city closed these rights of way, the complex may not have room to meet its parking needs.
Mitch Roberts, CEO of Elevate Entertainment, the parent company of Evo, said having the parking lot connected to the complex is for safety and an aspect of the project he’s unwilling to compromise on. He said this “is not a Church of Scientology request,” but an Evo site requirement that came from him directly.
“I see this vision for downtown Clearwater. I’m so excited about what it could be, and I would love to help make it happen,“ Roberts said. ”But I cannot, and I will not, make a $50 million investment if the environment for that investment to be successful doesn’t exist.”
The meeting started at 6 p.m., and the council didn’t vote on the item until nearly 10 p.m. People started lining up Thursday morning, and those in favor of the project packed the council chambers and dominated public comment.
“From the viewpoint of a longtime business owner and a longtime resident,” local restaurant owner Soney Louvon said, “the benefits far outweigh the loss of two streets.”
At one point, a representative from the Church of Scientology stood up to ask people in the audience to share whether they were “for” or “against” the project — instead of using their allotted time to speak — to save time. That echoed a request from the council.
People who were against the requests said they were being blocked from speaking. The city has a first-come, first-served rule for public comment, but some residents said there were problems with that process.
The concern has been voiced previously, when the City Council in June approved giving the church part of another downtown roadway for an event hall.
“There’s many people that were left outside tonight,” said Kelly Myer, a member of a group of residents that is working to repeal the city’s June vote. “It’s crucial for the next meeting that’s coming up to please have a process in place to determine who is first come, first serve.”
Neither Evo nor the Cleveland Street Alliance mentioned the project was contingent upon the city transferring these roadways, in addition to a city-owned parcel, when they announced the project.
The City Council, acting as the Community Redevelopment Agency, will have to take a separate vote on selling the city-owned lot for the project, which has been appraised for $875,000.
The council will also have to take another vote on transferring public rights to the streets.
