Bloomberg to Revive Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment

Mayor Michael Bloomberg will announce a revived effort to redevelop the long-vacant Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx during his State of the City speech on Thursday, Crain's reported.

“We don't walk away from things,” Bloomberg told Crain's. “If you don't get something, you come back and try again. That's what our job is.”

The armory, which previously housed a National Guard unit, has been the subject of various development proposals since the 1990s. The Related Companies, the large New York developer of the Time Warner Center and Hudson Yards, had agreed to invest $310 million to turn the nearly five-acre complex into a shopping mall in 2008.

But in a rare defeat for the Bloomberg administration, the City Council voted 45 to 1 to reject the plan in 2010, after community activists demanded a living wage of $10 per hour because the project would receive tax subsidies. Related refused, and the real estate industry characterized the project as a loss of potential jobs and tax income for the city.

The new request for proposal will allow the winner to lease or buy the property from the city and allows for a greater range of uses, excluding residential, compared to the 2008 request.

Meanwhile, the City Council is debating a living wage bill that would enforce the $10 per hour minimum salary for tax-subsidized projects throughout the city.