Title
Recommendation to City Council on Whether to Issue Debt for Yelm Highway Community Park Phase I Construction and the Armory Arts Center Phase I Renovations
Report
Issue:
Whether to recommend to City Council to issue debt for Yelm Highway Community Park Phase I Construction and the Armory Arts Center Phase I Renovations
Staff Contact:
Sylvana Niehuser, Director of Parks Planning & Maintenance, Parks, Arts and Recreation Department, 360.753.8068
Presenter(s):
Sylvana Niehuser, Director of Park Planning & Maintenance
Tammy LeDoux, Parks Finance & Policy Coordinator
Background and Analysis:
Armory Arts Center
The City of Olympia is working to transform the historic Armory building into a new Arts Center. The working vision of the Armory is to support the arts as integral to Olympia's way of life; encourage community growth through creativity and innovation; use the arts to connect people, ideas, and place, while operating from an equity framework. In 1989, the City first identified a need for a regional arts center with exhibition space, working studios and rehearsal space for regional artists. Additionally, the Community Arts Center is called out in eight other community planning documents. The Comprehensive Plan specifically calls for the regional community arts center under PR 8.1. The Armory Arts Center fulfills many needs for the arts and meets several goals and priorities throughout the City's Comprehensive Plan. The Community Arts Center was also part of the 2004 Voted Utility Tax ballot measure.
The Olympia Armory Building is located at 515 Eastside St SE and was transferred to the City of Olympia in March 2022 from the State of Washington as directed by the Washington State Legislature.
In January of 2024, eight non-profit arts organizations were identified as future tenants (Anchor Partners for the building), including The Bridge Music Project, Capital City Pride, Community Print, Kokua Services/Hummingbird Studio, Olympia Film Collective, Oly...
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