City of Olympia sets eyes on March 2022 for acquisition of Armory building
After 30-odd years of planning and hoping, the City of Olympia finally has a date set for acquiring the historic Olympia Armory building to be used as a Creative Campus.
During last week’s meeting Olympia City Council approved the memorandum of understanding with the Washington state Military Department for the real estate transfer of the armory building to the city. The city had asked the state legislature to include the transfer of property in its state budget, which Gov. Jay Inslee signed May 18.
The state military department had until May 2023 to give the armory building at 515 Eastside St. SE to the city of Olympia. During the city council meeting on Dec. 14, Mayor Cheryl Selby expressed her excitement for the fast turnaround on the project.
“I can’t tell you how excited this community is,” Selby said. “We’ve undergone community outreach already, a visioning process of what a creative campus would look like, and the response has just been overwhelming.”
Selby said the space will be a game changer for the city as far as becoming a state hub for the creative industry.
The Armory building, built in 1939, was previously used by the National Guard, but they’re moving to a new facility, leaving the historic building vacant. The space has garnered support from city officials and Olympians alike for being added to the city’s Heritage Register as well as for becoming a Creative Campus. The space features a large center assembly space, classrooms, meeting rooms, working spaces and more.
Angel Nava, Arts Program specialist for the city, said now that the formal transaction for the acquisition of the building is finally happening, the city will be able to start working in the building by March.
Open houses and surveys were conducted this fall to gauge the public’s interest in the Creative Campus and what they’d like to see in the building. Nava said she’s heard dozens of ideas and proposals, including creating spaces for arts education programming, artist live-work spaces, maker spaces and more.
“It could lend itself to a lot of uses for our community,” Nava said.
She said there also was an open house for the armory building that was connected to fall Arts Walk. A few hundred people came to check out the space and to offer ideas on how to use it. Nava said they’re still working on the process of prioritizing those ideas and requests to figure out what the space will actually contain.
Nava said the city is trying to create lots of opportunities for community members to connect with them on how to best use the space. She said that over the years, many community members have advocated for the space, writing letters to the city and state legislators in support of it becoming a Creative Campus.
In the coming months, Nava said there will be a community housewarming event in the Armory building to show people what the space looks like and to continue getting input and ideas on how to use it.
This story was originally published December 20, 2021 at 8:26 AM.
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