Sea Lion and Penguin Exhibits
A City of Tampa building permit describes new outdoor exhibits housing sea lions and penguins at 701 Channelside Dr, including a new sea lion animal management building. A related permit covers a new indoor puffins exhibit.
Building permits describe planned work. They don’t guarantee that a business will open or when.
What we spotted
- Activity
- New attraction
- Category
- Things to do
Where
701 Channelside Dr
Tampa, FL 33602
This is The Florida Aquarium’s address; the permit itself doesn’t name the Florida Aquarium. City of Tampa neighborhood: Port of Tampa. Open in a map
The evidence
| Permit | Type | Filed | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| BLD-26-0526740 | Commercial New Construction and Additions | July 21, 2026 | Issued |
| BLD-26-0526601 Supporting | Commercial Building Alterations (Renovations) | July 15, 2026 | Issued |
Permit numbers link to each record on the City of Tampa’s permitting site. Status is as the City listed it on Sept. 25, 2026. Supporting permits are other permits for the same project: at the same address and naming the same place, citing one another, or covering another phase of the same building.
When we spotted it
This permit was already active when Tampa Thinks started watching City permits on Sept. 25, 2026. We found it in the existing permits. That isn’t when it was filed, and it doesn’t make it new.
What this means
A building permit is the City’s record of planned construction work. It doesn’t mean a business will open, and it doesn’t say when. Plans change, tenants change, and some permitted work is never finished.
The sentence above is written from the permit’s details by fixed rules. Where the permit leaves something out, such as the tenant, we say so rather than guess. We don’t republish the permit’s own text. How Spotted works.