Hopes faded last week that a revamped Kingsbridge Armory will bring well-paying jobs to one of the poorest neighborhoods in the Bronx.

During a closed-door meeting at the offices of Community Board 7 in Bedford Park, Jesse Masyr, a lawyer for the Armory's designated developer, the Related Companies, told community representatives that the project would not go forward with guarantees for living wage jobs - $10 and hour, plus benefits, as defined by the City Council.

With an Army Reserve Center in Wakefield closing and the city controlling the redevelopment process for the building, activists see new hope for schools at the Armory.

The Kingsbridge Armory Task Force is set to meet on April 24. What will the topic of discussion be? Depends on who you ask: the city or community groups.

Last Wednesday, the city approved a proposal that could lead to $17.8 million in tax breaks for the Related Companies, the developer that plans to transform the massive landmarked Kingsbridge Armory into a shopping center.

For the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance (KARA), the decision was a setback. The Alliance hoped the agency would postpone its decision until Related committed to negotiating a community benefits agreement.

This week the city will begin discussing how much public financing to award the Related Companies in exchange for buying and renovating the Kingsbridge Armory into a giant shopping mall. With the inclusion of public financing for the Armory project, community groups believe they will have added leverage to negotiate a substantial community benefits agreement

With every large-scale urban development project, like the overhaul planned for the Kingsbridge Armory, comes the inevitable question: How will the community benefit? The answer varies depending on factors such as the project's popularity, the number of jobs created and the public land use review process.

It's also increasingly about the community getting the developer to sign a binding agreement, offering certain benefits to the community - such as local hiring preferences, job training programs for local residents, or money for local service programs.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Bronx City Council members Joel Rivera and Oliver Koppell all want schools built in the Kingsbridge Armory project to reduce school overcrowding, they said at a roundtable discussion with Bronx journalists in late July.

Ideas for a revamped Kingsbridge Armory gushed from the minds and mouths of local stakeholders at a public brainstorming session last week and included everything from a youth center to a community auditorium.

Fourteen years after the National Guard handed the city its keys to the Kingsbridge Armory, we are finally at a point where something positive may happen there.

A developer has been selected, the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition is tenaciously fighting to make sure that its priorities are realized in the final plan, and a newly invigorated Community Board 7 is taking seriously the advisory role given it by the City Charter.

This is great news. But we hope these two community entities can maintain a united front despite apparent tensions.

The Coalition wants the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance (KARA), an umbrella group it formed, to negotiate a solid community benefits agreement with the developer, The Related Companies. Community Board 7 chair Greg Faulkner has requested that there be Board participation on KARA's negotiating team. The Coalition has rejected that request and has generally not shown interest in working with the Board.

We understand why the Coalition would want to forge ahead on its own. But shutting the door on CB7 is counter-productive.