Kingsbridge Armory braces for new battle

OK, so I’ve been watching this Armory battle play out for half my life. We have watched this play out for half our lives.”

TAFADAR SOUROV, Local-79 union member

Pigeons nest in its ceiling trusses while powdery white efflorescence fans out across its masonry — a sure sign of too much moisture.

The Kingsbridge Armory has been vacant, more or less, since it was decommissioned by the New York National Guard and handed over to the city in the 1990s. Plans to redevelop the former home of the Guard’s Eighth Regiment have foundered under a succession of mayors, culminating with the failure of the private Kingsbridge National Ice Center venture late last year.

But beginning now, the New York City Economic Development Corp. says it’s ready to turn a new page.

“We want to have a fresh start,” a spokesman for the EDC said Monday.

In the coming months, officials will research the site, and talk with those who have a stake in what happens to it, he said. The goal is to draw up a “public vision” document, allowing the EDC to entertain ideas for future use.

The Armory — a monumental turreted brick building sitting on 5 acres of city-owned land at 29 W. Kingsbridge Road — is part of a portfolio of revenue-generating properties handed over to the EDC by the city for quasi-public control of their transfer or lease to developers.

Kingsbridge Heights has its own ideas about the Armory’s future. Some 150 people gathered outside the century-old structure last week where a vibrant informal market flourishes amid cracks and sinkholes in the sidewalk. Organizers handed flyers to passersby, and offered yellow roses to about 100 vendors who hawk their wares on the bustling strip.

Students from two nearby public schools along with congregants from New Day Church, and members of Laborers Local-79 made up the rest of the crowd. They wove plastic tiles into the chain-link fence to form a colorful mosaic, then stood back to observe their handiwork, which read, “our armory” in three-foot lettering.

The Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition first fought to make the Kingsbridge Armory an economic development priority more than two decades ago, and is leading the charge once again. The clergy coalition allied with labor groups and faith leaders in 2012 to secure living-wage jobs and space for local nonprofits as part of the city’s plan to transform the Armory into a massive sports center with nine ice rinks.

That also included a center rink with 5,000 seats.

They emerged from negotiations with the EDC and developers with a deal in hand guaranteeing $11.50 an hour for jobs on-site, and a hiring preference for local workers.

Those provisions and the community benefits agreement that codified them now belong to a different era.

“Economic development is created to give the executive office — the mayor — the flexibility to bring in new development on the theory that labor contracts and city charter requirements are an obstacle,” said Tom Angotti, an urban planning professor emeritus at CUNY. “EDC is a way around those.”

Other properties the EDC manages have come under threat when developers or tenants say they will simply move to another location. Pfizer did just that in 2010 after it took millions in subsidies as an incentive to stay in New York City.

At the Kingsbridge Armory, the plan to build the world’s biggest ice-skating center died slowly in litigation after KNIC failed to secure full financing for the project. It dragged on for nearly 10 years before finally falling into a shambles in 2021.

A Bronx Supreme Court ruling struck down the developer’s final bid to keep the project alive, and the EDC confirmed last December it would not proceed with them. Now, some 30 years after the city first took possession of the Armory, the process is starting from scratch.

“So, what does that mean for us? This means we have six months to come together to engage and make sure that the values and principles, the community’s priorities, and project ideas all need to be included by all of you participating in the process,” Northwest Bronx organizer Juan Nuñez told the crowd gathered at the Armory last week.

Some of those in attendance have watched the drama play out their entire lives.

“We young people have a lot to offer in this process,” said Alex Medina, a local high school student and youth leader with Sistas and Brothas United. “We have a lot to gain — and a lot to lose, depending on what happens with the Armory.”

According to Medina’s teacher, Stefina Fisher, learning about the history of the Kingsbridge Armory left her students feeling dismayed.

“They were really frustrated,” she said, “and they said things like, ‘See? We cannot get nice things for the Bronx. Why is this happening?’”

Fisher’s students have some ideas of their own for the Armory: free access athletic facilities, de-stressing places, and somewhere to study with mental health services.

The crowd was dotted with the red shirts of members of Laborers Local-79. The union was an ally in the fight for a living wage provision in EDC’s contract with KNIC, and wants to ensure those efforts are part of future plans.

“Change is inevitable,” said Barrie Smith, an executive board member with Local-79. “But we want to make it so that the people that live here — that were born and raised here — are able to be on-board with that change.

Northwest Bronx organizers retooled their economic development strategy earlier this year, hiring a full-time leader to relaunch their decades-old campaign for a transparent and equitable process in redeveloping the Armory.

“It’s important to understand that a lot has changed since 2013,” said executive director Sandra Lobo. “Whatever happens inside the Armory should not compete with outside the Armory, which is now a burgeoning commercial corridor. We want to complement the local business. We’re organizing to educate folks because many don’t know the previous project has fallen through.

“The EDC is launching their formal community visioning process,” Lobo added. “The clock has started to tick.”

While the EDC has been in touch with various interested parties, spokesman Nico Aguilar said he couldn’t speak about what EDC has planned beyond that it’s conducting its own community engagement and research.

State lawmakers committed to the continuation of a $108 million loan for future development of the Kingsbridge Armory in the 2022-2023 New York state budget. And city councilor Pierina Sanchez secured another $5 million for armory renovations through the city council's 2023 capital budget, the second largest of nine line items this year for economic development. 

Industry City chief executive Andrew Kimball now heads the EDC. Mayor Eric Adams’ pick had previously lost the rezoning of Sunset Park in Brooklyn.

“When Bloomberg was mayor, he gave the EDC a little more leeway,” Angotti said. “He did that with most of his commissioners, unlike some of the other mayors who tend to micromanage things and want to interfere.

“It takes community groups who are fighting to gain control of land. As always, it depends on organizing. There are many examples where communities have come together, and succeeded.”

Abigail Nehring is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms.