Norwood News

Community groups and new Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. are combining forces to negotiate an agreement that would provide additional community benefits from the coming redevelopment of the Kingsbridge Amory.

If successful, the collaboration between the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance (KARA), Community Board 7 and the borough president’s office, could become a new model for large-scale development projects in New York City.

The recent Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs) signed for other big projects in the city — including for the new Yankee Stadium, Gateway Center Mall and Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn — were widely criticized for lacking community input. In this case, the agreement would be driven by community voices, with the borough president’s office coordinating the effort.

The need to forge a benefits agreement, something both KARA and Board 7 have pushed for, became more urgent last week when the city announced the start of the land use review process for the Armory project.

The complicated review process, known as ULURP (Uniformed Land Use Review Procedure), begins at Board 7, which represents the area where the Armory is located. The board, made up of appointed local volunteers, has until July 27 to review and decide whether or not to support the proposal.

After the board votes, the borough president has 30 days to review the project and weigh in on it. The decisions of both the board and the borough president are advisory.

The proposal then goes back to the City Planning Commission for approval and then on to the City Council. If a majority of the Council votes to approve the proposal, it goes on to the mayor who has the power to veto the Council’s decision.

But before July 27, the board and KARA want to see a benefits agreement, modeled after the substantial, community-driven CBAs in California, to be firmly in place. What exactly goes into that agreement remains to be seen, but it will be based on a combination of the principles and ideas generated by Board 7 and KARA, which is comprised of community groups, unions and local clergy.

“We’re going to marry these two documents into one document and present it with a unified front to the developer,” said Board 7 Chairman Greg Faulkner. This “unified front” represents a break from the past when KARA and the board were both intent on pursuing separate benefits agreements.

Faulkner and KARA representatives said Diaz, Jr. would be helping to coordinate the benefits agreement effort, but would allow the community to take the lead.

What the CBA will look like also depends on what the developer, the well-connected Related Companies, is willing to agree to. Jesse Masyr, Related’s lawyer, has already said Related would not agree to living wage job requirements, something KARA, especially, is pushing hard for. (Diaz, in his swearing-in speech last week, said he wanted to push for higher paying Bronx jobs, though he didn’t mention the Armory specifically. His office could not be reached for comment by press time.)

Other benefits discussed by the board and KARA include union and environmental protections, more space for community programs, the creation of affordable housing, parks improvements and affordable recreation opportunities.

At the Board 7 general meeting last Tuesday, representatives from the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, the main engine behind KARA, spoke primarily about the importance of securing living wage jobs ($10 an hour, plus benefits) for a community suffering from poverty. Some 30 percent of local residents around the Armory live below the poverty line.

Related and the city say the new Armory development will create 1,208 permanent retail jobs, but KARA says those jobs will be part-time and low paying unless the developer puts wage requirements on tenants, something that has not been done before in New York. (Related says they will be hard-pressed to find retail tenants willing to do that.)

While some acknowledged the need and desire to see some new retail opportunities, many speakers from KARA and the board talked eloquently about how a new Armory should represent change, not just more shops for the area.

Board 7’s Ozzie Brown unveiled his proposal for creating a World Peace Atrium, complete with ample space for community programming, in the middle of the Armory to highlight its transformation from a military facility. “We need to put together a space that can be a beacon for our community and attract people from all over the world,” he said.

Kwasi Akeampong, a member of the Coalition, said he had toured the vacant Armory and had also visited Related’s other big Bronx project, the Gateway Center Mall, which is set to open near Yankee Stadium and will include a host of chain stores such as Target, Applebees and Best Buy. “I looked at Gateway, then I said, ‘I don’t want to have another Gateway,’” he said. 

Speaking about the opportunity to create a game-changing benefits agreement, KARA and Coalition leader Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter said, “This is our chance of finding a new way of doing business in the Bronx.”