As a group of about a dozen people gathered together for a photo at the local community board office on a sweltering Monday afternoon, Jesse Masyr, who has represented Kingsbridge Armory developer Related Companies for 25 years, looked slightly uncomfortable.

“I’ve been to a ton of these [meetings] and I’ve never done this before,” said Masyr, chuckling as he squeezed into the shot.

Masyr was at the offices of Community Board 7 for a meet and greet with board members.

Sometime in the near future, the board will be able to weigh in with its thoughts on Related’s vision for a revamped Kingsbridge Armory during the city’s official land review process. The city picked Related to develop what it’s calling the “Shops at the Armory” about a month ago.

Masyr was accompanied by an associate at his law firm, Wachtel and Masyr, Dean Vanderwarker from Related, two reps from the city’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC), and a woman from the mayor’s office.

Board members trickled into the meeting, including Chairman Greg Faulkner, after dealing with heat-related traffic and transit issues, while the EDC and Related reps laid out the development process.

The EDC talked about a new advisory board that was being set up to ensure “community” involvement in the process. Faulkner and Ozzie Brown, CB7’s land use chair, will be on the board along with other elected officials and community groups, including the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance (KARA).

Masyr called the Armory redevelopment an “exquisitely complicated project,” adding that Related was committed to building a unique “building inside of a building,” and being a good neighbor for a long time.

“We don’t sell,” Masyr said emphatically.

Faulkner said he wanted to lay the groundwork for negotiating some type of benefits agreement for the community (as is KARA, who Faulkner says he is working with), though he didn’t go into detail about what that might mean. “We don’t want window dressing. We want something real.”

Brown and other members talked about the need for fresh produce and that a priority for it would be to get a top-notch grocery store into the Armory like a Whole Foods. In response, Masyr said, “I don’t find that at all problematic.”

CB7 District Manager Fernando Tirado said he wanted the Armory to be a big draw from outside the Bronx. Masyr said Related needed it to be a big draw for the project to be fiscally viable, calling the project “extraordinarily expensive.”

Faulkner said he’d heard that communities and developers go through a “honeymoon period,” that then tends to unravel. He said he wanted the relationship between Related and CB7 to be “a strong marriage.”

The marriage part remains to be seen, but at least they’ll have photos from the honeymoon.