Spotted

How Spotted works

Every day Tampa Thinks saves a copy of the City of Tampa’s list of active building permits. Spotted reads every commercial permit and asks one question: what does this permit say, concretely and without guessing, about a Tampa place? When the answer is something a resident could understand and use, we publish it in our own words, with the permit as the receipt.

What’s happening. Each item carries the activity the permit describes: a new place, a new attraction, a change of use, an expansion, shell construction, a demolition, tenant work, a remodel, a refresh or a rebuild. When the permit doesn’t say something, such as who the tenant is or whether a store is new, we say so instead of guessing.

What’s worth a look. The rules decide what a permit safely says. How prominently we show it is an editorial call: new places, transformations, attractions and major projects lead; routine work on existing businesses sits under More we spotted; component-level work (new display cases, rearranged equipment) is only on the full activity list. A short, documented list of manual adjustments covers brand spellings, prominence and removals. It never changes what an item says.

What we leave out. Offices, warehouses, industrial sites, apartments and internal public infrastructure (pump stations, airport equipment, fleet yards). Internal clinical work at hospitals and clinics. Behavioral-health, psychiatric and substance-use facilities, which Spotted doesn’t amplify. Permits whose business name can’t be read safely, and people’s names, landlords and developers.

What we publish. A name when the permit states one, a sentence written from the permit’s details by fixed rules, the address and the permit numbers, with a link to each permit on the City’s site. We don’t republish the permit’s own title or description, which can name people. No AI is involved.

Coverage. City of Tampa building permits only. Places in unincorporated Hillsborough County, Temple Terrace or other cities aren’t included. Ordinary permits filed more than about three years ago are left out; big projects still under an active permit can be up to five years old.

Where. The area on each card is the neighborhood the City assigns the permit, or a named development when the address is part of it (International Plaza, Hyde Park Village, Midtown Tampa, Water Street, Tampa International Airport).

Dates. “Filed” is when the permit application was created. The City’s list doesn’t include an issue date, and permits don’t say when a business might open. We started watching on Sept. 25, 2026, so everything found in permits that were already active that day is shown as found in existing permits, never as new.

Source: City of Tampa, Construction Inspections (active building permits) (CC0 (City of Tampa GeoHub)). Permit list as of Sept. 25, 2026.