The local chapter of the Church of Scientology is selling its downtown headquarters at 1330 Fourth Ave. and moving operations to La Mesa, where the organization recently purchased a site for $9.3 million, according to the chapter president.
The new location off Interstate 8, the former site of La Mesa Bowl and a private college campus, features two buildings totaling more than 64,400 square feet of space and 410 parking spaces for the chapter's 18,000 members, says President David Meyer.
It was built in 1968 and purchased by the church in 1996, says Vince Provenzano, a broker with Award Commercial Properties, who represented the church with Martin Alfaro on the La Mesa location.
The move is expected to happen within the year.
It's part of expansion plans by the church, which plans to launch up to seven satellite offices throughout the county in the next 24 months, Meyer says.
The church is going through "significant growth" worldwide, mainly because the 18 textbooks by church founder and science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, which contain its canons, have been reprinted and edited to more closely resemble the original drafts, Meyer says.
"We now have them available in their exact forms," he said. "Now people are really getting them. It's like starting a wildfire."
The expanded facilities will allow the group to increase its staff from 70 to 125 staff members - mostly part-timers.
The buildings will be purchased with funds raised by the church, which plans to sell its existing property and then lease the space until the La Mesa renovations are completed.
The new building designs will be dictated by the church's executive offices in Los Angeles. "They bless everything down to the color, shapes and sizes," he said.
