For nearly a decade, the Kingsbridge Armory, a striking red brick hulk built in 1917 to house the National Guard, has sat vacant amidst the poverty-stricken neighborhoods of the northwest Bronx.

 

Then last month, the Planning Commission approved the $310 million project by the Related Company to build a mall inside the landmark structure. But the plan, which is slated to provide 2,200 jobs to the community, has run into serious opposition from Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. and members of the Bronx delegation of the City Council.

Now, some members of the Council and opponents of the project say they would rather kill the project than have it go forward without agreements that guarantee wage protections.

Typically, the Council defers to the local member on land-use issues. In the case of the Armory, however, negotiators are dealing with the added difficulty that the Armory is in the district of Maria Baez, who was voted out of office in a bitterly fought primary.

Baez was seen by many as favoring Related’s plans for the structure, but City Hall insiders say she has mostly absented herself from the Council after losing the election. Instead, Diaz has taken the lead, and most Council members contacted for this story referred calls to him and new Bronx delegation chair Annabel Palma.

Baez did not return repeated calls for comment.

Diaz and members of the Bronx delegation would like any agreement to include provisions for a living wage for all employees who work in the Armory, especially since the project is receiving city tax breaks.

“I don’t want to have developers come into our borough and do well while the borough leads the country in the poverty rate,” he said. “A living wage is a reasonable and responsible request.”

But Related and administration officials say a living wage provision that would be guaranteed in the lease would scare retailers away, especially since they could open similar outlets nearby without such requirements. They add that a living wage provision that singled out this project would put the retailers and developers at an unfair disadvantage, and would create an unsustainable precedent.

Both sides say an agreement will not be forthcoming until the living wage provision is agreed upon, and neither has shown signs of budging.

“There are all kinds of community benefits to discuss, but we can’t, because the borough president has drawn a line in the sand,” said Jesse Masyr, an attorney representing Related. “A living wage is a death penalty for this project.”

The local community board approved the project and requested that a supermarket be included, a request that met opposition by a Morton Williams across the street and by the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union, which supporters of the project say fears a rival union gaining a foothold in the new store.

"There are supermarkets that operate that provide decent wages, and because they provide decent wages they would face a competitive disadvantage and may not be able to survive if a market opened in the Armory," said RWDSU head Stuart Appelbaum. "When the Bronx was burning, Morton Williams didn’t pick up and leave. They stayed committed to the Bronx."

Appelbaum has emerged as a fierce critic of the project, as he has for many Bloomberg administration initiatives. He says that Kingsbridge is a test of the administration.

“The notion we have is that if the city is providing huge subsidies, then we have the right to expect it will provide benefits to the community,” he said. “If they don’t do it right and provide jobs, then don’t do it at all.”

Council insiders say that part of the difficulty in the negotiations is that the Bronx delegation is in flux with a new borough president, a new county leader, in Assembly member Carl Heastie, and a new delegation head.

Diaz, they say, has filled in the breach and is exerting a kind of influence over the Council that his predecessor, Adolfo Carrión, did not. The delegation is more disciplined, they say, but there is less room to negotiate.

Members of the delegation agree, and see this as a strength.

"We have a new form of leadership here in the Bronx,” said Fernando Cabrera, who defeated Baez in the primary and who has been taking part in the negotiations. “Ruben Diaz, Jr. is a very engaged, very strategic type of leader."

Further complicating matters is that the September elections were a boon to organized labor in the city, and the unions—with the exception of the building trades—have stood firmly against the project.

Negotiators for the administration and the developers say they worry that even if they were to reach an accord on the living wage issue with the developers, the Council could ultimately overrule them to curry favor with various labor factions.

Observers are keeping an eye on Christine Quinn as the negotiations enter the 11th hour. In previous land-use negotiations, the Council speaker came in at the end to bring warring factions together, often on behalf of the mayor, administration officials say. But with rumblings against her leadership, Quinn may be unlikely to interfere.

"The speaker wants to stay the speaker,” said one person close to the negotiations. “She is going to give her members a lot of leeway right now."