We evaluated the six Armory proposals on five criteria:
1. Does it benefit West Tampa's neighborhoods, economically and socially? We looked for proposals that created living-wage jobs or job training activities. We also looked for projects that would provide a neighborhood destination, either shops or offices that would serve a neighborhood purpose.
2. Does it support the creative industries and/or include significant arts and cultural elements? West Tampa has a rich history of arts and culture, something that a good proposal should reflect and nurture. Likewise, as devotees of Richard Florida know, growing our creative industries is one of the strongest economic strategies we have.
3. Is the development team strong? Can it get bank loans or raise the money to build its project? Is the developer experienced in creating what it proposes to build? Finally, we gave more points to projects that sought no subsidies.
4. Does it provide a unique destination and respect the history of the Armory? We gave higher points to proposals that incorporated the Armory's past and that gave the larger Tampa Bay community a reason to come visit West Tampa.
5. Does it provide new permanent, living-wage jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities? The winning project should not only create jobs but good-paying jobs, and it should also include opportunities for neighborhood entrepreneurs to open a shop or office in the project.
All four Weekly Planet writers involved in the evaluating process scored each proposal. Those scores were than averaged and appear alongside each project.
This article appears in Jul 19-25, 2006.