by David Cruz 

Merchants facing a rent hike along a stretch of stores near the Kingsbridge Armory are breathing easier for now after hearing news their impending high rent will be delayed. Rents were to have gone up Aug. 1.

At a meeting hosted by the Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition and the Northwest Bronx Democrats at St. Tolentine Church on Fordham. Steven Lorenzo, a realtor with NAI Friedland, told the audience that New Kingsbridge LLC, the new landlord to two properties on the corner of West Kingsbridge Road and Jerome Avenue has decided to arrive at a compromise with merchants. Lorenzo, serving as a go-between for merchants and the new landlord, will be meeting next week to hammer out details.

The change came following a meeting with Community Board 7 on Tuesday night, where merchants vented their frustration to members and stakeholders over the rent spike. Lorenzo later met with Rick Brown, a representative from New Kingsbridge LLC, an offshoot of Levites Realty Management, spending three hours with merchants to address major concerns about the sudden rent hike.

“He’s met with a couple of them and was definitely swayed by their concerns,” Lorenzo told the Norwood News. “Tenants said the economy is not what it was before.”

Lorenzo emphasized that while he knows the new landlord, he has no financial stake in the Levites’ new leasing of the properties.

But despite the good news Gene Bass, one of thirteen affected merchants at the corner of West Kingsbridge Road and Jerome Avenue, remained skeptical.

“I believe it when I see it,” said Bass, owner of Forever Young on Kingsbridge Road.

Meantime, the NWBCCC and NWBx Dems plan to hold more town hall-style forums to educate the public on changes inspired by the Kingsbridge Armory redevelopment project, slated to become an ice center. They offered information on the Community Benefits Agreement, a legally binding document that offers financial benefits to the surrounding community. The CBA remains inactive for now, upon the signing of the lease by Kingsbridge National Ice Center Partners LLC. A lawsuit that’s currently working its way through the legal system has delayed the project for now.