A longtime dormitory for Church of Scientology staffers will become the site of a work-release program for more than 200 nonviolent inmates if Goodwill Industries-Suncoast buys the property near East Bay Drive and U.S. 19. But that's a big if, said Goodwill spokeswoman Michael Ann Harvey. "As the minutes tick by and days tick by, more problems are occurring with the condition of the building and what it would require financially for Goodwill to bring it up to requirements," Harvey said. ...

Construction of the Island View condominium and retail complex on the northern edge of downtown won't begin by the end of the year as initially planned because of slow sales and a slight change to the project's design. But officials with Triangle Development of Clearwater say sales have steadily picked up and construction will begin by Dec. 31, 2008 - the new deadline the City Council unanimously approved Wednesday night. Triangle executives asked the council for a one-year extension on their ...

CLEARWATER — The Church of Scientology is in announcement mode again, this time saying it will spend $20-million on a major upgrade of its iconic Fort Harrison Hotel. But what church officials aren't saying is exactly when the work will start. So, expect some eye rolls. That's because across the street from the Fort Harrison is Scientology's seven-story Super Power building. Stuccoed, trimmed and painted on the outside, the huge building is unfinished and vacant on the inside. And, remarkably, it's ...

Thousands of bay area homeowners are fighting foreclosure suits. Most will be swiftly expelled, their lender stuck with a house it never wanted. There are exceptions. Palm Harbor resident Sandra Mann-Stack hasn't paid her monthly mortgage since 1998, the year Homeside Lending Inc. sued her and husband Peter Stack for default. Over time, the couple has thwarted at least 10 scheduled auctions, twice by filing for bankruptcy protection the day before. They've gone through at least four judges and watched the ...

CLEARWATER - After years of delay, there are visible signs that the Church of Scientology's ambitious plans to expand its downtown campus are again moving forward. Several months ago, cranes began piecing together a four-story, 275-space parking garage at East Avenue and Franklin Street. It is expected to be finished by April. On Tuesday, the Church of Scientology will go before the city's Community Development Board to request a transfer of development rights from the site of its power plant on ...

Scientology is perhaps best-known for its most famous practitioner, Tom Cruise. But in this beachy Tampa suburb, Scientologists are neighbors... CLEARWATER, Fla. — Scientology is perhaps best-known for its most famous practitioner, Tom Cruise. But in this beachy Tampa suburb, Scientologists are neighbors, business owners, real-estate investors — and a growing force that makes some uncomfortable. The Church of Scientology, despite its official status as a tax-exempt religious organization, is nonetheless the largest taxpayer in downtown Clearwater, home to its worldwide ...

Some speculate a proposed PSTA / developer deal is driven by Scientology plans or politics. CLEARWATER - From one perspective, the discussions that took place in front of the camera last week seemed pretty straight-forward. The county's bus service, the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, has a bus depot in downtown Clearwater that is too small and too crowded. Some businessmen want the PSTA's land for private development, and they are in a position to acquire a nearby site on Drew Street ...

CLEARWATER — Former Clearwater Mayor Gabe Cazares, a civil rights advocate, champion of the disadvantaged and arch-enemy of the Church of Scientology, died Friday (Sept. 29, 2006). He was 86. As a politician, Mr. Cazares led the local Democratic Party and won public office at a time when few Hispanics even lived in Pinellas County. As a community activist, he worked to help the poor and build bridges in Clearwater during the early years of integration. But after the Church of ...

Religions have always penalized those who betray the cause. Catholics excommunicate, barring the wayward from church rites. The Amish, Jehovah's Witnesses and some orthodox Jewish sects shun their nonconformists. In the Tampa Bay area's burgeoning Scientology community, members abide by a policy considered by some religious experts extreme: Scientologists declare their outcasts "suppressive persons." Another Scientology policy — called "disconnection" — forbids Scientologists from interacting with a suppressive person. No calls, no letters, no contact. An SP is a pariah. Anyone ...

In the works for decades, the closely guarded spiritual training program will be revealed in Clearwater. CLEARWATER - Matt Feshbach believes he has super powers. He senses danger faster than most people. He appreciates beauty more deeply than he used to. He says he outperforms his peers in the money management industry. He heightened his powers of perception in 1995 when he went to Los Angeles and became the first and so far only "public" Scientologist to take a highly classified ...

After a period of worldwide growth, the church is turning its attention back to expansion at its Clearwater headquarters. CLEARWATER - A global expansion by the Church of Scientology delayed construction of a flagship building in this city it considers its spiritual headquarters, church officials say. But after spending hundreds of millions of dollars from Madrid to Mountain View, Calif., the church is once again turning its attention to downtown Clearwater in a big way. The church plans to finish its ...

The largest private development project planned for downtown could reshape the northwest corner with two condo towers and upscale shops. CLEARWATER — What started as a modest plan for 39 condominiums just north of the Church of Scientology's Sandcastle retreat has gradually blossomed into an ambitious residential and retail development plan that could dramatically reshape the long neglected northwest corner of downtown Clearwater. Triangle Development is now proposing two 15-story condominium towers on the bluffs overlooking Clearwater Harbor. Between them will ...

A local lawyer and political consultant are hired to help break down barriers for Scientology. It was a sticky decision and everyone in the room knew it. Bennetta Slaughter, the charismatic businesswoman whose tireless committee work had impressed so many, was being nominated to the Clearwater Regional Chamber of Commerce board of directors. "Do we really want one on the board?" several asked. By "one" they meant: a Scientologist. Board members worried that the chamber's rank and file might quit in ...

The driver, a Church of Scientology employee, says the man ran at the bus; others disagree. CLEARWATER — A Largo man remained in serious condition at Bayfront Medical Center on Wednesday, a day after being struck by a Church of Scientology bus in downtown Clearwater. The bus driver, an employee of the church's Flag Service Organization in Clearwater, told church officials the injured man ran at the moving bus and punched a window before slipping under it, according to church spokesman ...

Clearwater Village's developers envision 126 Mediterranean-style homes with a median cost of $450,000 to $500,000. CLEARWATER — Unicorns. Free lunches. Large tracts of undeveloped Clearwater land. None of those things exist, right? In fact, 24 vacant acres do exist in Clearwater, land that has been largely untouched since mules grazed there some 80 years ago. Developers snatched it up, of course. And then they thought about what to do with their blank canvas. Surrounded as it is by a church, low-income ...

Narconon, a drug treatment program with Scientology backing, now wants taxpayer assistance. CLEARWATER – At Tampa Bay's newest alternative to mainstream drug treatment, the license issued by the state hangs next to commendations from the Church of Scientology. Narconon, a controversial drug treatment program based on techniques developed by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, has opened its first Florida facility in Clearwater in a commercial park off U.S. 19. Past the meticulously clean lobby are classrooms where recovering addicts take a ...

Scientology's largest facility in the world, still more than a year from completion, has altered the Clearwater skyline. CLEARWATER – From arched 31-foot windows to the 1,140-seat dining room, there is much that will be grand in the Church of Scientology's new downtown religious center. It will have 889 rooms, 447 windows, 42 bathrooms. A two-story lighted cross will perch atop the highest tower, 150 feet up. The building even has a hefty nickname, "Super Power." In recent weeks, the building's ...

Home is a pair of waterfront mansions valued at $3.8-million on a gated Belleair island. His ride to work is a sleek Mercedes S600. Retail: $100,000. He has a $6.6-million getaway in Aspen, Colo. He's refurbishing two New York City office buildings he bought for $41-million. Bryan Zwan has become wealthy since founding Digital Lightwave 12 years ago. Last fall, he joined Bill Gates and Warren Buffett on the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans. Zwan, 54, exudes the friendliness, ...

Months of interviews and thousands of pages of court papers show the effect that influential church members had on a Clearwater company that was a darling of the dot-com boom. It was New Year's Eve 1997 when Digital Lightwave's chief, Bryan Zwan, made his biggest deal: a $9-million contract for his signature product, a 10-pound device that tests telephone lines. At 5:30 p.m., Zwan phoned his production staff and gave them a tall order: Ship the 308 units right away. It ...

The church pays $5-million for the 13-story downtown property, which the church tried and failed to purchase years ago. CLEARWATER – The Church of Scientology has purchased a vacant 13-story high-rise downtown that will house more than 600 new staff members in another step in Scientology's unprecedented expansion in the city. The church last week closed the deal to buy the nearly 2-acre property for $5-million from a nonprofit corporation, BEF Inc., which does business as the Oaks of Clearwater. Scientology ...

CLEARWATER – No angry swarms picketed the Church of Scientology last week. No candlelight vigils. No TV cameras. No extra police patrols. For the first time in six years, the anniversary of the death of Scientologist Lisa McPherson passed quietly. The McPherson maelstrom, which brought nightmarish publicity for the church, has ebbed dramatically, now that the high-profile criminal charges against the church were dropped and a raucous group of church critics recently left Clearwater. But one critical battle remains, one so ...

With the Sandcastle and Osceola expansions, the church now has 565 rooms in and near downtown Clearwater. CLEARWATER — The Church of Scientology boasts more hotel rooms and religious counseling spaces in Clearwater than ever before with the completion this summer of $9-million of construction downtown. The church now has 565 hotel rooms in and near downtown Clearwater. In a typical week, about 1,300 visiting Scientologists from around the world lodge there while receiving spiritual counseling and training. The newest expansions ...