By Alex Kratz

While the city continues to deliberate about which contractor should develop the long-vacant Kingsbridge Armory in the northwest Bronx, community leaders and local elected officials wonder what’s taking so long.  

The city’s Economic Development Corporation, which is managing the Armory project, originally said it would choose a developer – either Atlantic Development Group or the Related Companies – by October 2007. It’s now February 2008 and the EDC says it is in no rush to make a decision.

“We don’t set a hard and fast deadline on these things,” EDC spokesperson Janel Patterson wrote in an email last week. “We want to be sure we have the time required to do our due diligence.”

As the community awaits an answer, speculation is running rampant.

“Well, the rumor is that they chose Related,” said Council Member Oliver Koppell on Tuesday morning. Koppell, who sits on an advisory Armory task force of local leaders and elected officials, said he didn’t have anything more solid than rumors.

The EDC would not confirm or deny the Related rumor.

Meanwhile, community leaders are beginning to wonder if politics has begun to enter the equation.

Teresa Anderson is president of the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, an activist group that created the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance (KARA), which is trying to negotiate a community benefits agreement with whichever group wins the Armory contract.

“I think part of it is that they’re taking into account that they need to choose someone who is willing to work with KARA,” Anderson said. She said the group, comprised of unions, elected officials and local residents, “has taken on a life of its own” and is a force to be reckoned with.

Anderson said she wonders if Borough President Adolfo Carrion, who has not signed on to KARA’s demands and will not agree to meet with them, is holding up the process.

Without mentioning Carrion, Patterson wrote, “When we have as many stakeholders involved as we do here, things can take longer than we expect them to.”

“The borough president has always maintained an open door policy and has met with numerous members of the community, elected officials and community organizations regarding this project,” Carrion spokesman Mike Murphy wrote in an email.

Community Board 7 Chair Greg Faulkner, who is a member of the task force but has also not joined KARA, said he doubts Carrion is to blame.

“I’ve heard I’m holding it up,” he said. Another explanation, he said, might lie in the recent changes in the mayor’s office.

Dan Doctoroff, who has business ties with the head of the Related Companies, Stephen Ross, recently stepped down as deputy mayor for economic development. He was replaced by former EDC president Robert Lieber, who was in turn replaced by EDC vice president Seth Pinsky.

It’s unclear  how this will impact the Armory plans, but Faulkner said that it’s possible the new leadership at EDC is taking a fresh look at the project following all the upheaval. “Maybe it’s a good thing,” Faulkner said.

While the waiting game continues, the Armory remains empty.

“The Armory has been lying fallow for more than a decade,” Koppell said. “It’s dreadful.”