Email detailed plans to obscure Scientologists’ role in Clearwater project
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When Arizona real estate developer Rodney Riley arrived in Clearwater last year, he unveiled a $350 million plan to revive prime waterfront property near downtown.
He said he intended to buy 55 empty and neglected parcels in the North Marina Area and transform them into luxury condos, offices, a hotel and multifamily housing, generating millions of dollars of tax revenue. The 13-block district, with historic bungalows and streets that end at Clearwater Harbor, is anchored by the city’s popular Seminole Boat Ramp.
The announcement signaled a promising turn of events. The current landowners — limited liability companies tied to Church of Scientology members — had kept the lots largely untouched since buying there in 2019.
Riley is not a member of Scientology, and he has gone out of his way to share that fact in early meetings with city officials.
“He was talking about being an outsider coming in,” Clearwater Economic Development and Housing director Denise Sanderson said. “He’s done work in Utah with Mormons, and he felt it was a similar situation here having to overcome issues of perception.”
As Riley seeks the required approvals from the city, he has described the project to Clearwater officials as one with no involvement from Scientology beyond the parishioner-related entities selling him the land.
But an email obtained by the Tampa Bay Times lays out in detail that wealthy Scientologists recruited Riley to be the public face of the project instead of the church members.
Content retrieved from: https://www.tampabay.com/news/clearwater/2023/04/02/church-of-scientology-david-miscavige-rodney-riley-trish-duggan-downtown/.
