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Jesus bearing the cross at the Holy Land Experience biblical theme park, Orlando, Florida, early 2020.Sarah M. Brown
ORLANDO, Florida – The Jerusalem Temple may soon crumble – again. At least the monumental, half-scale, six-story replica of the facade built for the Holy Land Experience biblical theme park in – where else? – Orlando, the kitsch capital of the world.
Trinity Broadcasting Network owns the 15-acre attraction, a recreation of first-century Jerusalem, which sparked controversy in both the Jewish and Christian communities when it opened in 2001.
The worldwide evangelical Christian network recently announced that Holy Land, which has struggled financially almost from the beginning, was laying off most of its staff and ending its live shows, which include a reenactment of the Crucifixion and a dance number on the Temple steps. Earlier, the park cut back to a five-day-a-week schedule.
Trinity said it is exploring plans to sell Holy Land, along with two adjoining parcels, to developers, who could level the park and replace it with apartments, a shopping center or a luxury hotel. Holy Land’s site is considered highly desirable, near an exit off Interstate 4, kitty-corner to the area’s most upscale shopping center and just 15 minutes from the Universal and Sea World theme parks. The total 65-acre package is valued at $70.6 million, of which Holy Land is assessed at $20.2 million.
“The intersection they’re at is one of the strongest retail destinations in the entire market,” Justin Greider, a local developer, told The Orlando Sentinel.
On a recent weekday visit to the Holy Land Experience, even before the coronavirus crisis escalated, you could hurl a Roman legionnaire’s spear into the painstakingly recreated Jerusalem Market without hitting a single paying customer. One of the two gift shops was closed; the other was selling merchandise at fire sale prices (Holy Land T-shirts, $3). At lunchtime, Esther’s Banquet Hall restaurant was nearly empty. There were no tour buses in the parking lot, and most of the cars parked there had Florida or Georgia license plates.
The few visitors hustled in small clusters from one pared-down scheduled performance to another, as a heartfelt version of the Shema prayer, in Hebrew, played on the public address system.
“This place is a shadow of what it...