The Kingsbridge Armory has been mostly dormant for nearly 30 years.
Photo Adrian Childress
In what the governor and mayor are calling an unprecedented move, the state’s top elected officials announced on Tuesday a whopping $200 million commitment toward the revitalization of the Kingsbridge Armory.
Located just south of the Jerome Park Reservoir in Kingsbridge Heights, the structure — the largest armory in the nation — was originally opened as a military facility in 1917 but has sat dormant for almost three decades. Since 1996, when the armory was transferred to New York City, multiple community and government initiatives have outlined ambitious plans for its redevelopment — including turning the site into a mall and a huge indoor ice rink — as well as using it as temporary emergency space during the COVID-19 pandemic and after the Twin Parks North West Fire.
But each long-term project proposal has failed, leaving the surrounding community skeptical that they’ll ever be able to enjoy the space again.
And while top New York City officials don’t yet know what the space will become — the Request for Proposal (RFP) process for the site has yet to start — they said on Tuesday that they’re committed to seeing this project cross the finish line.
“Now we’re delivering,” Mayor Eric Adams said during a press conference at the building with Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday. “(The) Kingsbridge Armory has the possibility to become a beacon of employment, entrepreneurship and opportunity.”
The primary industries of interest have been boiled down to film and television, sustainable manufacturing, emerging technologies and urban agriculture. That’s according to the Together for Kingsbridge Vision Plan unveiled during the press conference, which Hochul said will serve “as a road map to transform this building into an economic engine for local jobs and a true asset for the community.”
Adams said the vision plan…
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