Olympia’s Armory Creative Campus moves forward with search for anchor tenants
The City of Olympia has been in the process of transforming the historic Olympia Armory into a creative campus to better support the arts and artists in the region. Now, officials are looking for arts nonprofits to move into the building and serve as anchor tenants.
Arts nonprofits can apply to be an anchor partner in the Armory Creative Campus Building. If chosen, they would relocate their operations to the site and start a long-term lease. Officials are looking for nonprofits with a strong track record in community arts education and training.
The application process opened Nov. 1 and will close Dec. 15. It can be found on the city’s Engage Olympia website.
According to the release, anchor partners will be expected to help create spaces for gatherings and events, host arts classes and creative experiences for the public, and more, while keeping in mind the historic aspects of the building for sense of place and community continuity.
Anchor partners will help bridge barriers to access and work with the city on ways to provide affordable artist live/work spaces in the future.
Anchor partners also will help the city design the campus.
The city encourages nonprofits that serve Black or Indigenous, people of color, transgender, non-binary, LGBTQ+, immigrants, people with disabilities, and women to apply.
The city of Olympia was awarded a Smart Project Award by Gov. Jay Inslee earlier this month for successfully bringing the Olympia Armory Creative Campus to life. The award recognizes local governments and their partners for exceptional land use planning and development, according to the state Department of Commerce’s website.
City officials also are working with the state Department of Enterprise Services and an energy-saving company from Renton to bring energy upgrades to the armory.
Armory building manager Val Roberts told the Olympia Arts Commission they may consider making room for electric vehicles, switching to electric energy from gas, and installing solar panels.
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