The Muller Army Reserve Center in Wakefield is fast becoming the new Kingsbridge Armory. As of press time, the mayor’s office and Bronx officials (and activists) are in complete disagreement on how to best fill the vacant Muller Center, which the Department of Defense handed over to the city late last year as part of its BRAC program.

The Muller Local Redevelopment Authority (LRA) — made up of Diaz and two deputy mayors — was tasked with coming up with a plan for the center.

Diaz pushed a plan that would relocate the National Guard units, currently housed in the Armory’s annex building, to the Muller Center, which would keep the guard units in the Bronx and open up space for new schools in the Armory’s annex buildings.

The deputy mayors, however, want the center to house a 200-bed homeless shelter and were poised to out-vote Diaz to get their way. The mayor’s office says BRAC guidelines clearly require empty bases to be used for homeless services, but that is oversimplifying. BRAC guidelines only require that homeless assistance be a consideration, not a requirement.

But Diaz boycotted two scheduled meetings of the authority, saying the Wakefield community is already overburdened with two homeless shelters already in the pipeline. Diaz’s move sends the fate of the Muller Center back into the hands of the Department of Defense, whose budget is controlled by Congress.

“We have a lot of friends in Congress,” said Diaz spokesman John DeSio.