The mall and recreation complex coming to the Kingsbridge Armory will undoubtedly host well-known retail stores and provide more goods to local shoppers, but it is unclear if this kind of new business will provide good jobs for Bronx workers.

Two weeks ago, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn ventured into the Bronx (for the third time that week), to take a tour of the long-vacant Kingsbridge Armory, a giant castle in the middle of Community Board 7.

The city's Economic Development Corporation will not choose a developer for the vacant Kingsbridge Armory until at least October, said Community Board 7 Chair Greg Faulkner.

First there were four. And then two. And now maybe none. Despite earlier assurances in official city documents, the city's Education Department now says it has no plans to construct schools at the Kingsbridge Armory.

Picture a mega mall on Kingsbridge Road, complete with a multi-screen cinema, food court, gymnasium and several floors of retail stores. It's being called "a destination" by developers who submitted proposals to turn the landmark Kingsbridge Armory into a local hub of shopping, entertainment and community space.

After a nearly two-and-a-half month delay, the Kingsbridge Armory redevelopment project is back on track and the city is moving quickly toward choosing a developer.

After two months of negotiations with a Bronx advisory group, city officials withdrew a controversial confidentiality agreement that would have prevented group members, including prominent elected officials, from speaking publicly about the Kingsbridge Armory redevelopment proposals.

City and local Bronx officials continue to butt heads over a controversial confidentiality agreement that is threatening to delay, or even derail, the long-anticipated redevelopment of the Kingsbridge Armory. The Armory Task Force, an advisory group created by the city's Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and made up of local elected officials and community leaders, was supposed to review and discuss the three Armory redevelopment proposals at a Bronx meeting on March 1.

A controversial confidentiality agreement is threatening to derail the selection process as New York City searches for a developer to renovate the Kingsbridge Armory in the northwest Bronx.