Daily News from New York, New York • 42

42 MOONIE3 FROM PAGE TEN The real estate holdings, from an 650-acre wooded retreat in Booneville, to the $5.6 million New Yorker hotel In midtown Manhattan, are sizeable, with sources on the Koreagate subcommittee placing them at $200 million. Moonles own or rent property in each of the 50 states. Because the church buys properties under its various companies and members critics call them "fronts" it is impossible to estimate the full extent of the empire. With its various political, cultural, recruiting and religious organizations, church enter-: prises operate under more than 100 different names. "The main thing that's affecting the church right now is that a large number of its members are married or engaged," Melton said.

"The core fundraising group it had in the '70s is not available Most of the Moonie money comes from street hawkers, but this may change shortly estate and to get Moon's latest love, the fishing industry, off the ground. In the past few Unification Church has built boats and begun fishing the waters from Alabama to Alaska. It has acquired a network of boat-building plants, wholesale and retail outlets and restaurants. The mainstay of the industry Is Master Marine-named for guess who located In the old Loft candy building on 8th St in Long Island City. The building, named East Sun, also houses other Moon projects a machine shop where boat trailers are made, the II Hwa Ginseng Center, which makes tea, an automobile repair shop, and a craft-building enterprise.

Most of Moon's businesses are run under various names and they are not tax-exempt One former Moonie, who left the church four weeks ago after working at Master Marine for nine months described the boat-building process. "We worked seven days a week from 8 a.m. until after 10 p.m. We each got paid $8 a week. We ate in a cafeteria in the building and lived there.

I slept in a room with about 30 others, in a sleeping bag on a wooden, platform." The hectic pace Is maintained, he said, to meet Moon's production schedule: 150 28-foot fiberglass boats built by July. Church members plan to haul them on trailers in a convoy from Washington, D.C., to Gloucester, for the tuna tournament In which Moonles compete and win. Although the church has some charity projects, most of its money in America goes back into its businesses and property. One recent addition to the church portfolio Is The' Glass Garden at 510 Ave. of the Americas, where hand-blown glass products are sold.

Although it is not in the church's name, the business is owned and run by church members. Melton sees nothing wrong with the businesses. "My own Methodist church owns businesses all over the country that we make money off of," he said. "And the Roman Catholic church is the second largest corporation in America." Next: Who joinsand why Moon once told his followers. "You must work day and night to make this great task a reality.

Eating, sleeping, are of no concern to me." Critics complain that while the church members slave away. Moon lives in splendor in his lavish and: tightly-guarded "East Garden estate in Irvington, in Westchester But current Moonles see it differently. "We do have a more rigid schedule than people who lead a secular life," said church spokeswoman Nadine Hack. "I feel like I'm on a deadline to save the world before the world blows up, so I don't mind missing lunch or working long hours." The congressional Subcommittee on International Organizations, which investigated Koreagate, found that some of the church's tax-free money is used for its far-flung international business empire, from kosher delis to munitions manufacturing, that has nothing to do with its religious cause. Church officials deny that their members use what is called "Heavenly Deception" in their street sales, telling customers that the proceeds will go to charity or a local church.

But church literature and former Moonles indicate that the church encouragesor at least tolerates what it calls "white lies" in the pursuit of loot The church says it raises $20 to $25 million a year from street sales of flowers, candy, pictures and' other trinkets. Former members place the figure at several times that Veteran Moon-watcher and sociologist Anson Shupe of the University of Texas at Arlington says his research indicates the street sales glean from $30 to $50 million annually. But the church's expanding (and heavily mortgaged) real estate kingdom and burgeoning businesses belie its actual fiscal state: It simply is not the Fort Knox that most people believe. "It is not a rich church," says Gordon Melton, founder of the American Institute for the Study of Religions in Evanston, 111. "If the cash flow stopped! tomorrow, they'd dry up tomorrow.

The businesses are new and are not really making money yet" anymore. It doesn't have the fundraising power It once had." New members still sell their flowers and candy, but there aren't as many of them to go around. Meanwhile, the older members prefer raising families to raising money. To appease them, the church has started family-run businesses such as delis, jewelry stores and fish markets, where church members can work a somewhat normal schedule. "Moon is In a tough position now," Shupe said.

"If he doesn't get the older members married by the time, they get in their 30s, they're burned out They have no career, no family. They're unhappy and disillusioned and they may leave the church. But if he does-get them married and settled down, they're not as useful in bringing in the big "bucks. It dries up fundraising." The cash is being used in America to buy real Vjyfaat fi TIoonlo8 own csnd whsst hcy do will? if Si IP A 47-acre site purchased in 1974 from Tarryg-reen Development Corp. for $1.35 million, and a 188-acre parcel purchased the same year for $3,762,500.

The Binger Estate, bought in 1975 from Candel Realty and relatives of Marjorie Binger for $510,000. The estate includes 13 acres of land. Tarryhill IV, a 13-acre stretch of woodland bought from the Robert Martin Corp. in 1975 for $300,000. The Kocher Estate in the Gracemere section -of Tarrytown, bought in 1975 from Walter and Rose Kocher for $1,647,584.

In 1976, the church bought four adjacent acres from the Kochers for $120,000. The Inch property, a group of single-family homes used to house church members, bought in 1976 from the Inch Corp. for $702,560. East Garden, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's, estate in Irvington.

The church purchased the' estate for $566,150 in 1973 from Garson owner of Exquisite bra and girdle company. A 98-acre tract in New Castle containing the former home of the late impressario Billy Rose, purchased for $650,000 in 1979 from the Catholic women's Cenacle of St Regis order. It was the subject of a prolonged zoning battle that Moon lost Other church property includes: The Unification Theological Seminary in Barrytown. The 200-acre seminary in Dutchess County, still unaccredited by the state Board of Regents, was purchased from the Christian Brothers Monastery in 1974 for $1.5 million. In addition, the church in 1977 bought a nearby piece of land on the Hudson River for $82,000.

Camp New Hope, in Accord, in Ulster County, an 80-acre former children's camp bought from the Bourbin family last June for $279,000. Last July, the church bought an adjacent 17 acres with a house on it from Joseph and Mary Traf icanti for. $79,000. Despite what most people think, most of the property owned by the Unification Church in New York State is not tax-exempt Local governments and courts have ruled that it is not used strictly' for religious purposes, but the church has appealed those rulings. Among the church's New York City properties are: The former Columbia University Club, 4 W.

43d St, the center for the church in the eastern United States. It was purchased in 1975 for $1.2 and has a current estimated market value of $2.5 million, The former New Yorker hotel, 481 8th the church's World Mission Center. Purchased in 1976 for $5.6 million; current estimated market value: $18.3 million. Manhattan Center, 311 W. 34th St Purchased in 1976 for $3 million; estimated market value is about the same amount today.

The former Tiffany Building, 401 5th purchased in 1977 for $2.4 million. It is now an official national historic landmark worth an estimated $4.3 million and houses the church's English and Spanish language daily newspapers. The East Sun building, former home of Loft Candy, at 38-38 9th St in Long Island City, Queens. Purchased in 1975 for now worth more than twice that amount A brownstone at 307 W. 107th St, purchased in 1975 for $67,000 and worth about $170,000 now.

And a two-family brick building at 2628 Davidson Ave. in the Bronx, purchased in 1975 for $52,000. It is worth an estimated $102,500. The church also owns several parcels of land in other counties, including 480 acres in the town of Greenburgh, in Westchester County. Most of it is in the villages of Tarrytown and Irvington, where officials say most of the holdings have doubled or tripled in market value since purchase.

They include: Belvedere Estate, a 19-acre parcel with a sprawling estate, bought in 1972 from Rayne Holdings Inc. for $850,000. Church members live and work here. Belvedere: A country place that cost $850,000. -g-.

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