The Super Power Building. Clearwater, Florida

The Super Power Building in Clearwater, Florida promises to be an epic structure once completed.
Designed as a training facility for the Church of Scientology it will be a celebration of that organisation and it’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard.
It will house a museum dedicated to the life of Hubbard and a museum recognising the importance of the Sea Org, an elite organisation within Scientology.
The building will also feature a bookshop, a library and have a total of 889 rooms for study and teaching. It will have 42 toilets, two kitchens and a 1,140 seat didning room.
A 124 foot bridge will connect the building to the Fort Harrison Hotel which is also owned by the Church of Scientology.
The land on which the building will stand had been purchased by the Church of Scientology in 1991 and detailed plans for the project were announced in 1993.
Construction began in 1998 with an initial budget of $24 million. By 2000 this had been revised up to $45million due to rises in the cost of steel and labour.
The project was originally due to be completed by 2003. In 2003 the budget was revised again, this time up to $90 million.
The Church announced in April 2006 that the building should be finished by the end of 2007.
As of December 2006 construction was at a standstill and the Church announced that the new date for completion would be the middle of 2008. Construction began again in July 2009 and the Church have declared it will be finished by late 2010.
While construction was suspended the city of Clearwater lost patience with the eyesore that the construction site had become and levied daily fines of $250 against the Church for failing to complete the project in a timely fashion.
By March 2009 these fines had reached a total of $245,0000.
Funding for the project has come from the Church’s membership.
Contributions are based on a series of levels which give benefits which rise according to the amount donated. Levels include a ‘Flag Supporter’ which indicates a donation of $1,000, a ‘Cornerstone Member’ which indicates a donation of $35,000, a ‘Founding Member’ which indicates a donation of $250,000, a ‘Master Builder of Merit’ which indicates a donation of $500,000 and the ‘Legion of OT Meritorious’ which indicates a donation of $7,500,000.
Benefits include access to the Key Contributor Lounge in the completed building, Gold Validation pins and Super Power rings.
Once completed the building is designed as a training centre for the Super Power Rundown.
This is a Scientology training course that, according to Hubbard himself, is:

‘A super fantastic, but confidential, series of rundowns that can be done on anybody, whether Clear or not, that puts the person into fantastic shape unleashing the Super Power of a Thetan. This means it puts Scientologists into a new realm of ability enabling them to create a new world. It puts World Clearing within reach of the future’

The building will contain specially designed equipment based on technology developed by NASA to train astronauts. This includes an anti-gravity simulator, a gyroscope that spins a person around to improve perception of compass direction and a video screen that flashes images to help to detect subliminal messages.
In a fundraising letter sent out in 2002 the importance of the project is outlined:

‘With the world in such a state of degradation and dismay the only hope to reverse the dwindling spiral on Earth is to speed the release of Super Power.
As you know, the 12 rundowns of Super Power were designed to handle the barriers to this planet’s Clearing. By releasing this technology we will unleash the Super Power of every being who completes these rundowns and they will build the New Civilisation so vitally needed.
The rapid completion of the funding and construction of the new building guarantees this Cleared Earth.’

You have to wonder how much success they’ll have building a ‘New Civilisation’ and ‘Cleared Earth’ when a rise in steel prices can derail their attempts to build a training centre...