{"id":2403015,"date":"2026-05-05T12:08:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T12:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2403015"},"modified":"2026-05-05T12:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T12:08:18","slug":"clearwater-left-in-the-dark-on-scientology-linked-entertainment-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/clearwater-left-in-the-dark-on-scientology-linked-entertainment-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Clearwater left in the dark on Scientology-linked entertainment project"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"text\">\n<p>Public messaging has left many <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/category\/clearwater\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"22\" title=\"Clearwater\">Clearwater<\/a> residents believing a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/2026\/04\/21\/clearwater-50m-entertainment-project\/\">$50 million downtown entertainment project<\/a> is already a done deal, even as city officials say they do not know who is leading it or how it would move forward.<\/p>\n<p>City leaders said the project, described as an EVO Entertainment complex with dining and attractions, has not entered development review, has not been approved by the City Council and has not been submitted with a formal proposal outlining ownership or next steps.<\/p>\n<p>The messaging contrasts with public statements from project backers, who said demolition is underway and described the development as entering an \u201cactive construction phase\u201d as the site is cleared for what they call a future $50 million entertainment destination. <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?href=https:\/\/fb.watch\/GV170_BxRY\/\" width=\"100%\" height=\"400\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><em>A Cleveland Street Alliance promotional video describes the EVO Entertainment project as \u201ca reality,\u201d even as Clearwater officials say it has not entered formal review or received approvals.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The plan is tied to broader redevelopment concepts involving downtown Clearwater properties linked to the Church of Scientology and the Cleveland Street Alliance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe volume and persistent messaging suggest a level of certainty that just isn\u2019t there,\u201d Councilmember Lina Teixeira said during Monday\u2019s City Council workshop. \u201cNone of the required reviews, land acquisitions, vacations and approvals have been done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Bruce Rector said he does not know who is leading the effort or how the parties involved are connected.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would very much like to get to the bottom of who\u2019s playing what role here,\u201d Rector said. \u201cNo one has explained how all these entities are involved together, who\u2019s leading and who\u2019s not leading this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Those entities include Cleveland Street Alliance LLC, which has promoted the redevelopment effort, the Church of Scientology\u2019s Flag organization, EVO\u2019s parent company Elevate Entertainment Group and a separate property-owning LLC tied to the proposed site. Rector said the city has not received a clear explanation of how those groups relate to one another or who is responsible for advancing the project.<\/p>\n<p>Developers have promoted the project through advertising, press releases and social media before entering the city\u2019s review process, prompting questions from residents about whether approvals were granted outside public channels.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWas this a backdoor deal? Because they\u2019re saying it\u2019s happening,\u201d Teixeira said, describing questions from constituents. \u201cSo, did you give away that road that I use every day? What about that other road? What about the parcel?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe perception is it is a done deal,\u201d she said. \u201cAll I\u2019m asking is for clarity and responsible verbiage because it is not a done deal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Councilmember Ryan Cotton pushed back on criticism of the project and cautioned against discouraging interest before more details are known.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you have a large theater group and Dolby Digital Atmos championing something that\u2019s going to be put into downtown Clearwater, you have to champion it,\u201d Cotton said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t know, but we\u2019re going to find out more facts,\u201d he added. \u201cWe need to remember that as elected officials, our words matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>City officials plan to hold a public work session to bring developers and stakeholders together to explain the proposal and answer questions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet\u2019s have them come in and tell us what\u2019s happening and be more public-facing about it, because it needs to be reviewed,\u201d Councilmember David Allbritton said.<\/p>\n<p>Until then, the project remains a proposal without approvals or a defined path forward, even as public messaging continues to suggest otherwise.<\/p>\n<p><!-- TBBW CTA Footer Block --><\/p>\n<section class=\"tbbw-cta\" aria-label=\"Tampa Bay business news and updates\">\n<h2>Read More Tampa Bay Business News<\/h2>\n<p>\n    Explore the latest Tampa Bay <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/category\/business-news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"16\" title=\"business\">business<\/a> news, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/real-estate\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Real Estate\">real estate<\/a> deals, development projects, executive moves and company updates shaping the region.\n  <\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script>\n                    (function(d, s, id) {\n                        var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n                        if (d.getElementById(id)) return;\n                        js = d.createElement(s);\n                        js.id = id;\n                        js.src = \"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v3.2\";\n                        fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n                    }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n                <\/script><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source tbbwmag.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Public messaging has left many Clearwater residents believing a $50 million downtown entertainment project is already a done deal, even as city officials say they do not know who is leading it or how it would move forward. City leaders said the project, described as an EVO Entertainment complex with dining and attractions, has not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2403016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2403015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Clearwater-left-in-the-dark-on-Scientology-linked-entertainment-project.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2403015"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2403017,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403015\/revisions\/2403017"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2403016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2403015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2403015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2403015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}