Workers are busily transforming the old Science Museum of Minnesota in downtown St. Paul into the new local headquarters for the Church of Scientology-thanks to a $3 million renovation.
The Clearwater, Fla.-based denomination, which claims more than 8,000 churches and adherents in 165 countries, has been headquartered in the Twin Cities at 1011 Nicollet Ave. in Minneapolis since 1991.
That will change when the renovated, three-story, 80,640-square-foot building at 505 N. Wabasha St. in St. Paul reopens as a Scientology "Ideal Church" and its local headquarters.
The church bought the building in June 2007 for $3.5 million, according to Ramsey County tax records. It had been planning to renovate and occupy the building by the spring of 2008, but that didn't happen as a result of the difficult financial environment.
At the time, the building had been vacant for about a year. It opened in 1977 as the Science Museum of Minnesota; after the museum moved in 1999, it became the Minnesota Business Academy, until the academy went out of business in 2006.
Coincidentally, though the Church of Scientology is exempt from property taxes as a religious organization, the Ramsey County tax records show that the building and 0.73 of an acre of land it sits on are valued at $3.5 million for 2010-2011 for property tax purposes.
According to records for St. Paul's Department of Safety and Inspections, the remodeling permit that lists the value of the renovation at $2.5 million was issued for the project March 29; in addition, a permit for electrical work valued at $530,000 was issued March 31.
The contractor on the remodeling project is JE Dunn Construction of Eden Prairie; Minneapolis-based Elliott Contracting Corporation is doing the electrical work.
Architectural plans that the San Francisco office of architectural firm Gensler filed with the city in May 2009 indicate that most of the remodeling will occur inside, though, the plans add that there will be "miscellaneous repair work occurring at the exterior and roof of the building."
An apparently altered image of the new exterior of the building included on the church's website under the listing of "Upcoming Ideal Church of Scientology Twin Cities, USA" shows a building front the color of light pink, with the church's symbols and the name "Church of Scientology" atop the front doors.
The Rev. Brian Fesler, former director of special affairs for the Church of Scientology here who has moved to the church's location in Nashville, wrote in an e-mail that "the spirit of the old Science Museum in St. Paul will be proud of its new occupants, and the neighbors will love the treatment of the building."
The unique building still houses a 300-seat theater that served as the Omni Theater for the museum; the Church of Scientology is maintaining the theater "with fixed theater seating from level 2 to level 3" as its chapel, according to the Gensler plans on file at the city.
The project description included in those plans also says that the church's Twin Cities headquarters will include a bookstore, offices, adult classrooms, counseling rooms, a small gym and a small café.
In addition, the renovated structure will contain on the third floor separate saunas and changing rooms for men and women - as well as, in Room 365, space for "purification," the Gensler plans say.
According to the "frequently asked questions" section of the Church of Scientology website, the "purification" process is "a carefully designed combination of exercise, vitamins, nutrition and sauna use which dislodges drug residues and other toxins from the fatty tissues so that these substances can then be eliminated from the body."
