San Diego televangelist Morris Cerullo, widely known for his overseas healing crusades and the occasional legal skirmish, is now hoping to cement his spiritual legacy with the help of hologram-filled catacombs, a 20-foot tall wailing wall and an interactive Biblical museum.

More than four years after purchasing a foreclosed Mission Valley hotel, the sometimes controversial Pentecostal preacher is banking on faithful followers and religious-minded tourists to flock to a planned Christian-themed resort that will transport visitors back to Biblical times with underground passages reminiscent of Rome, an homage to Jerusalem’s Western Wall, and a domed theater outfitted with full motion seats and sensory effects simulating wind, snow and fog.

Rendering of wailing wall proposed as part of the Morris Cerullo Legacy International Center. Visioneering Studios

The $125 million project, which still needs the approval of the San Diego City Council, promises to transform the 18-acre site of the nondescript Mission Valley Resort and mini-mart into a tourist destination that Cerullo’s world ministry is convinced can draw as many as 400,000 visitors a year. And not all of them will be seeking out the gospel according to Cerullo, say project leaders.

“This idea of themed entertainment is going to start reaching into all kinds of fingers — in museums, the waterfront, and you need a lot of touchy feely technology,” said Jim Penner, executive director of the Morris Cerullo Legacy Center. “It’s a business model. It’s just based around religious themes rather than secular themes.

“We’re not trying to cover up the fact that it’s religious in nature. We’re just creating it in a way that’s very attraction-oriented.”

Rendering of 18-acre Morris Cerullo Legacy International Center. Colleen Mason

Cerullo, who at one time owned the El Cortez Hotel, is no stranger to the world of religious tourism. Back in the early 1990’s, he sought to salvage a once popular Christian theme park founded — and bankrupted — by disgraced evangelist Jim Baker. Cerullo’s investment in the sprawling South Carolina resort, though, turned out to be short-lived, coming to an end after a dispute with Cerullo’s Malaysian partners who had sued him and later settled.

Now in his 80s and recently hospitalized for vasculitis, Cerullo was unavailable for an interview, but his associates say the Mission Valley project was conceived, in part, as an enduring vehicle for his teachings long after he is gone.

“He’s 84 and has got to be thinking about how many more years do I have and what happens to this ministry I poured my life into?” said Lynn Hodge, CEO of Morris Cerullo World Evangelism, headquartered on Aero Court. “So what he doesn’t want, when he dies, is for this ministry to die.”

Part theme park, part vanity project celebrating Cerullo’s more than six decades of evangelical missions and teachings, the Legacy International Center, as it’s being called, will also serve as the new headquarters of his operation that took root here in the early 1960’s.

Project overview Rotunda-style Welcome Center: Features cultures of countries around the world, 17,000 square feet History Dome Theater: First level is a museum Biblical museum housing Judeo-Christian artifacts; second floor a state-of-the-art, 330-seat theater with motion sensory floor and seating, 30,000 square feet Catacombs: Subterranean caverns linking the Welcome Center and domed theater Western Wall: 20-foot tall, 40-foot-long replica of wailing wall Central plaza: Centerpiece would be a marketplace with vendors from around the world, 8,200 square feet Training Center Pavilion: Houses a learning center, gift shops, restaurant, TV studio and 500-seat theater, and spa, 105,000 square feet Legacy Village timeshare complex: 127 suites in a five-story building, plus a tennis court and lagoon pool Executive offices: 21,000 square feet

Cerullo’s ambitious foray into hospitality, though, will still showcase the luxury accoutrements one would expect of any self-respecting resort operator: a spa and fitness center, fine dining, dazzling fountains and well appointed suites. But an immersive 12-minute journey through the Bible, complete with mists of water during the parting of the Red Sea?

That’s more Disney than Hilton.

Cerullo has in fact hired an Orange County firm, Visioneering Studios — helmed by a couple of Walt Disney alums — to help bring to life the project’s vision for a museum featuring artifacts from his world travels, an outdoor bazaar-like marketplace, the catacombs and a “History Dome Theater.”

One of the theater’s high-tech productions, “Wings Over Israel,” will in some ways feel more like a ride, says Visioneering president Mel McGowan. It will mimic the hang gliding sensation of California Adventure’s “Soarin’ Over California,” which one of Visioneering’s principals had a hand in creating.

McGowan, who spent nearly a decade at the Walt Disney Company, said he thinks the intersection of Biblical times with world history and culture makes for a far more compelling backdrop than the California theme used for the Disneyland Resort expansion, which he was involved with.

“I’d sum up the generalist draw of the concept by saying this: “Would you be up for a quick trip to and through Moroccan souks, Spanish Alhambra, hang gliding over Israel, exploring haunted catacombs, experiencing the birthplace of three world religions?” he explained.

“Part of our job is to design it for the broadest market possible. We’re not doing our job if this is supposed to be a weird, evangelical mecca.”

Rendering of the catacombs at the Morris Cerullo Legacy International Center. Visioneering Studios

Just how much appeal, though, it will have for the San Diego vacationer trying to cram in a visit to SeaWorld, the zoo and the beaches is somewhat questionable, say leisure industry experts. While there is a growing number of religious themed attractions, including the Holy Land Experience in Orlando, the Creation Museum in Kentucky and, more recently, Hobby Lobby President Steve Green’s $400 million plan for a Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., they tend to draw from a narrow market niche.

“Look at the Holy Land Experience and Creation Museum, which get a lot less attendance than even your Six Flags parks,” said Robert Niles, editor of Theme Park Insider. “History has shown with these kinds of projects that they don’t really break out beyond the evangelical Christian market. People’s fear of proselytizing overrides whatever technology they can throw at you. If you feel there may even be a mild sell, they won’t come.”

Not a problem, says San Diego real estate consultant Gary London, who was hired by Cerullo’s organization to analyze the project’s potential. His focus, he said, was on the 127 timeshare units, the spa and retail components, which he said could generate $86 million in revenues a year, enough to sustain the development.

“Initially, Dr. Cerullo thought the market opportunity from just his evangelical following would be significant enough to justify a time share project and we said, no, that won’t be enough,” said London. “He wanted to build this theme park but in order for it to work financially, these other components are needed.

“At first, I thought the idea was a little out there and then I met Dr. Cerullo and saw his determination and his life story, and his energy convinced me this was a project worth refining and pursuing.”

Over a lifetime of ministering to 4 million people, from South America and Ukraine to the Middle East and western Europe, Cerullo has accumulated legions of followers and also a healthy share of controversy.

In 1992, Cerullo was temporarily expelled from India after near riots broke out at a mass healing attended by 30,000. In 2000, he was sued by a former employee who accused Cerullo of fraudulent fundraising techniques, but the the suit was later dismissed by an appeals court that ruled the U.S. Constitution barred courts from getting involved in the internal disputes of religious organizations.

And in 2005, Cerullo was indicted for tax evasion, only to have the case overturned two years later by a judge who ruled that federal prosecutors and IRS agents misled the grand jury on the key legal issue in the case.

Over the years, he’s also been dogged by critics who’ve challenged claims that his Miracle Crusades have helped the lame to walk and the blind to see.

Cerullo’s organization, though, remains intact. It continues to host annual spiritual conferences that draw a few thousand attendees, as well as run an online school that has ordained an estimated 500 ministers over the last decade, says CEO Hodge. And Cerullo still sermonizes on his weekly television show, produced at a studio at the organization’s headquarters and broadcast on the South Carolina-based INSP network run by his son David.

If the Mission Valley project passes muster with the City Council, the Legacy Center plans to launch a capital campaign to help finance the project, which would be developed free of debt. It hopes to break ground later this year, with a potential opening in late 2017 or early 2018. An environmental impact report has been completed, and the Mission Valley planning group is expected to weigh in early next month.

And maybe, just maybe, it could become San Diego’s next big tourist attraction, says San Diego State School of Hospitality Program Director Carl Winston.

“If somebody asked me what’s the next thing going to be in the San Diego tourism scene, religious tourism would be the last thing I would have guessed,” he said. “But it does sound kind of cool. I’m not a particularly religious person, but golly, if it would bring new visitors into the market, how cool is that?”