Plans to turn the Kingsbridge Armory into the world’s largest ice sports complex, which were announced last week, drew a mix of reactions, most of them positive, from local residents, business owners, and students interested in the future of the Armory’s neighborhood.

Rose Mangubat, who lives near the Armory on University Avenue, said the city’s plans to turn the building into the Kingsbridge National Ice Center will bring the borough economic success.

But a local resident who identified herself as Jackie R. said that even though the future ice center will bring the Bronx a financial boost, she stressed that an already busy neighborhood will take on an additional traffic load.

“It’s going to get a lot busier,” she said. “I already feel safe here, but I don’t know who’s going to be coming in and coming out.”

Business owners surrounding the enormous building, however, all agreed that the rink will only bring good things — that is, once the idea comes to life.

On West 195th Street and Jerome Avenue, in the shadow of the Armory, empanada stand owner Pilar Guzman said the rinks will provide breaks for people who are struggling financially.

“It [means] jobs for everyone that don’t have jobs,” she said.

In 2009, thoughts of turning the Armory into a massive shopping center circulated the neighborhood, but died out when City Council, with support from Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr and the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance, rejected the idea. They were concerned with two things — the negative impact it would have on local businesses and low paying wages.

Additional ideas, including one to use the building as a mixed-market space featuring a hip-hop museum, were all shot down when Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the borough president, along with the ice center’s front man, Kevin Parker, announced the Armory’s long awaited fate last week.

The Kingsbridge National Ice Center, featuring nine full-sized rinks, is expected to bring 260 new decent paying jobs to the Bronx when it’s fully completed in 2019. As part of a community’s benefit agreement signed by developers and the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance, employers must pay employees of the ice center a living wage of $10 an hour plus benefits or $11.50 an hour without.

Although Julian Barinas, a newsstand worker on the corner of Jerome Avenue and West Kingsbridge Road is welcoming the new creation, he is a little skeptical of its realization.

“They spent a lot of time saying they are going to do something,” Barinas said in Spanish, alluding to the long history of uncertainty surrounding the Armory and several failed attempts at revitalizing the vacant property. “But at least there is hope,” he added.

The Armory is located on the southern end of the so-called Education Mile that runs from West 195th Street to Mosholu Parkway and is home to several public schools, Lehman College and thousands of students.

Many students passing the hulking building, for one of Guzman’s empanadas or on their way to the 4 train station, were eager to strap on their skates at the coming rinks. Many will be able to do so free of charge with the coming center’s youth program that will allow local youngsters to skate at the facility.

High school student Ash McCown expressed her excitement when she heard about the new rink, explaining that her school’s proximity to the Armory will make future ice skating opportunities “convenient.” Her friend and fellow classmate, Latifah Price, said she’d tag along.

Across the street from the Armory on West Kingsbridge Road, New Capital Restaurant manager Gabriel Vangelatos said he is looking forward to the rebirth of the building, and with it, the growth of the neighborhood.

“It’s about time they do something with it,” he said.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.