Mark Messier and the Kingsbridge Armory

On the eve of the due date for Kingsbridge Armory proposals, community activists plan a rally today in hopes of getting a bidder to bring living wages and a new school to the site, the New York Daily News reported, even as a plan for a winter sports complex gained traction.

The Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition and the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance, which defeated a shopping mall plan for the site three years ago, will rally and pray for community access to the armory, jobs at the armory that pay living wages and a new school. [more]

Knightsbridge Armory

Former Canadian professional hockey center Mark Messier and Olympic skating gold medalist Sarah Hughes have joined in an effort by the Kingsbridge National Ice Center group to transform the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx into a skating rink complex, Crain’s reported.

Investors Jonathan Richter and John Nolan presented the proposal, which lays out plans for a 5,000-seat arena, eight other rinks and a public school, to the land use committee of Bronx Community Board 7 last week. [more]

From left: The Kingsbridge Armory, a rendering of the mall at Bay Plaza and the Stella D’Oro factory

While three massive retail projects are pushing forward elsewhere in the Bronx, residents in the Kingsbridge neighborhood are dismayed by the lack of progress at a retail development site of their own. But according to Crain’s they need to look no further than “living wage” bill protests to explain the lack of development at the Kingsbridge Armory complex.

Two years ago the Related Companies had wanted to develop a shopping mall at the five-acre site with a large public subsidy, and promised 1,000 construction and 1,200 permanent jobs. But community opponents demanded that tenants of the taxpayer-funded mall pay their staff at least $10 per hour. Related balked. [more]

Oliver Koppell

Council members Oliver Koppell and Annabel Palma, who both represent districts in the Bronx, are set to pitch a bill Tuesday that would require wages of at least $10 per hour for all workers on development projects that are receiving public subsidies, according to the New York Times. The proposed wage is almost $3 more than the current minimum wage, $7.25. The move is likely to draw harsh criticism from Mayor Michael Bloomberg who vehemently opposed similar legislation at the Kingsbridge Armory project in the Bronx, before being defeated in a public stalemate with the City Council last December. Although approximately 140 different metropolitan regions nationwide have adopted similar laws, these policies have drawn harsh criticism from the real estate industry, which claims that they hamper development efforts. But Koppell contends that the bill is crucial to workers’ rights. “The idea is, where government subsidies are involved, the people who receive those subsidies should not be paying poverty-level wages,” Koppell said. [NYT]

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A plan to transform the Kingsbridge Armory annex from military units into four new schools has stalled, angering parents in the overcrowded school district. The plan had called for the National and New York Guard units to move to the 55,000-square-foot Muller Center on Nereid Avenue in Wakefield, which was to be vacated by the Army Reserve in 2011. But the federal base realignment and closure process, through which the city and the federal government are working to find new residents for the former Army Reserve base, favors homeless housing providers — and there are two such providers that are already interested in the space. The process was supposed to be completed by February, but the city has asked for more time, and the federal government hasn’t replied yet. If the city fails to find a new home for the military units, the National and New York Guard will remain at the West 195th Street Kingsbridge Armory and the Department of Education will have to find another spot for the 1,650 new seats it plans to add to School District 10 by next year. The armory’s annex was not part of the Kingsbridge Armory redevelopment plan that was vetoed by the City Council last year. [NYDN]

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz wasn’t a fan of the Related Companies’ Kingsbridge Armory redevelopment plan, but that doesn’t mean he wants the massive structure to remain vacant. Yesterday, Diaz announced the creation of a new task force that will recommend a new use for the space and craft a request for proposals from developers. “A retail mall was not the best use for this space, given the traffic issues and its proximity to the Fordham Road shopping district. My critics have challenged me to come up with something better for the Kingsbridge Armory, and I am prepared to answer that call,” Diaz said in a statement, suggesting arts and recreation, green manufacturing, and a home for the film industry as possible alternative uses. Members of the task force include Marlene Cintron, president of the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation, Paul Foster, chairman of Bronx Community Board 7, Ned Regan, former state comptroller and Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City. [NYO]

The New York City Council voted against the proposed Kingsbridge Armory development today, a $310 million project that would have refurbished the unoccupied building for use as a retail hub in the Bronx. Developer Related Companies had been tapped for the plan, but the council voted down the proposal 45-1. Although the failure to reach a living wage agreement with the developer had been a key issue in the weeks of debate leading up to the City Council vote, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn cited traffic issues as integral to the decision to vote against the project. “The Bronx community surrounding the armory is an area with significant traffic problems, and the impact this project will have cannot be underestimated,” Quinn said. “Even after numerous discussions, there continues to be an immitigable traffic impact. We cannot approve a project that will bring more people to an already overcrowded area and cause further strain to this community.” This is the first time that the council has voted against a major Bloomberg administration proposal, according  to NY1. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he was disappointed with the outcome. “Today’s vote against the Kingsbridge Armory redevelopment project means the loss of a rare opportunity to bring thousands of jobs and more than $300 million in private investment to the Bronx,” Bloomberg said. “From early in the planning process, we made clear we would never add mandatory wage requirements which would make the project unviable, and that was a line we were never going to cross.” TRD [more]

The recent debate at the potential Kingsbridge Armory development in the Bronx has shed new light on what some consider a living wage debate in New York City, WNYC reported. Opponents of the city-backed project want a guarantee that workers there will be paid more than minimum wage, a concession that some say may hamper the development. Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz has been particularly outspoken on the region’s pay laws, which he says are ineffective. “We are sick and tired of leading the nation as the number one county in poverty rates,” Diaz said. “Bronxites have been seeing development all over the place and they’re seeing the people who are making a profit, people who are making a good living from developing, don’t live in this borough.”

From the November issue: While vacancy signs have been proliferating along the avenues of many of the city’s established shopping districts throughout the downturn, major chain stores are moving into massive new malls located in former retail dead zones in places like the South Bronx and East Harlem. These new multilevel malls — many of which are on former industrial sites — are different from the big-box stores that made inroads into many parts of the city in recent years. They boast even larger floor plates, often allowing a store to consolidate all of its operations on one level. That, in turn, has the potential to attract the types of warehouse stores and wholesale outlets typically found in the suburbs and less dense parts of the outer boroughs. Indeed, later this month, Manhattan’s first Costco is set to open at East River Plaza, a new half-million-square-foot mall located between East 116th and 119th streets along the FDR Drive. Next year, a slew of bargain stores will also be opening at the mall, which was developed by the Blumenfeld Development Group and is 90 percent leased out. Tenants will include Best Buy, Marshalls, and Bob’s Discount Furniture.

Organized labor’s effort to secure a living wage for all workers at the soon-to-be redeveloped Kingsbridge Armory fell apart today, when the Building & Construction Trades Council of Greater New York pledged its support of the redevelopment. The group, an umbrella organization that represents over 100,000 construction workers, said it supports the project in part because of the developer’s past commitment to using unionized labor, Crain’s reported. “[Related Companies] consistently uses contractors on its projects throughout New York City that pay prevailing wages — good wages that include health insurance and pension benefits — to members of unions affiliated with the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York,” Gary LaBarbera, president of the council, said. Still, Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union, contends that Related cannot be counted upon to provide wages that benefit the community. “We call on the City Council to do what the Bronx borough president has done — reject Related’s development plans unless they sign a binding community benefits agreement that meets the needs of the community,” Appelbaum said. [more]