A Moonshot Plan to Fill a Cavernous, Dilapidated Armory in the Bronx

It has been called the world’s largest armory — a palatial fortress in the middle of the northwest Bronx, with turrets overlooking the subway station.

But for nearly 30 years, the Kingsbridge Armory has languished despite grand plans by mega-developers, billionaire investors and celebrities to repurpose the 570,000-square-foot landmark.

Now, an unusual community-led partnership aims to succeed where those efforts failed by creating an economic and cultural hub for those who live and work in the predominantly low-income neighborhood. It hopes to bring high-tech manufacturing jobs, a live performance space, new businesses and affordable housing to the city-owned site.

The proposed development, if selected by city officials, would be led by the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, an influential nonprofit group that has fought for racial justice, affordable housing and economic development in the city’s poorest borough since 1974. The plan grew out of years of frustration among community leaders and residents who were tired of being sidelined in previous plans for the armory.

“We’ve been fighting back for a really long time,” said Sandra Lobo, the executive director of the coalition. “It’s time to fight forward.”

Ms. Lobo was tapped by the city to help lead a nine-month, community-outreach process that shaped the priorities for redeveloping the armory. Her group decided to submit its own proposal.

The community-led development would be one of the first of its kind in New York and could signal a sea change in how moonshot projects get built, community leaders and economic development experts said. Around the country, a growing number of cities are seeing similar approaches to development projects as a way to create higher-paying jobs, especially in poor and minority areas.

The estimated $1 billion redevelopment of the armory, a 1917 Romanesque arsenal on about five acres in Kingsbridge Heights that was once home to the National Guard, would be one of the city’s most ambitious projects. The biggest component of the coalition’s proposal is an up to 90,000-square-foot manufacturing space for light industry, such as 3-D printing, coffee roasting or carpentry.

The coalition is working with Cross Street Partners, a Baltimore-based developer with expertise in repurposing old buildings, and Urbane, a New York developer. The project has already garnered the support of potential investors and labor union leaders, Ms. Lobo said.

Up to 20,000 square feet would go to a commercial kitchen and commissary to serve food-cart vendors and train culinary workers, among other uses. There would be food stalls, including local Dominican fare, crafts, and space for a distillery.

The group is also in talks with Live Nation to build a 5,000- to 30,000-person performance space for live music and other events in the 115-foot tall, column-free drill hall, where the National Guard performed military exercises.

A separate phase of development would create about 200 permanently affordable apartments on the site of two adjacent brick buildings, Ms. Lobo said.

The New York City Economic Development Corporation, which is managing the selection process, estimates that redeveloping the site could create over 1,800 jobs, including 1,100 in construction, and generate up to $10 billion in economic impact.

Perhaps nowhere in the city needs the support more than the Bronx. The community district surrounding the armory has a median household income of less than $42,000, compared with the citywide median of nearly $75,000, and nearly 30 percent of local residents live below the poverty line, according to a census analysis by Social Explorer, a data research company.

The armory proposal is part of a broader movement toward community-led development in cities — including Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland and Cincinnati — that has successfully created more higher-paying jobs in manufacturing and other industries in the past decade, said J. Phillip Thompson, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a former deputy mayor in the de Blasio administration.

“Around the country, I’m beginning to see lots of communities taking a similar kind of approach toward economic development,” Mr. Thompson said. “One way of making sure that good jobs stay in the city is having local ownership.”

In North Carolina, the Industrial Commons, an education and business development organization, has helped start and develop employee-owned businesses like Material Return, which recycles and repurposes textiles, including turning used wool socks into new ones. It is also redeveloping a 27-acre brownfield for manufacturing and training programs.

The Kingsbridge Armory, with its imposing redbrick walls and battlements, stands beside the elevated 4 train that runs along Jerome Avenue, one of the busiest commercial corridors in the borough. On a recent morning, a film crew was shooting a TV series in the cavernous drill hall, while street vendors sold winter coats outside, along a chain-link fence.

After the armory was decommissioned in the 1990s, and even during its military run, the building hosted a variety of uses: motorboat shows; auto racing in the “Speedrome”; bull-wrangling rodeos; wrestling bouts; and film shoots, including for the popular series, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” It was also pressed into service as an emergency center during the pandemic.

But the sprawling space, including the 180,000-square-foot drill hall, about the size of three football fields, has remained largely empty since 1996, when ownership reverted to New York City — a constant reminder of the Bronx’s untapped potential. In recent decades, plans to turn the armory into a shopping mall and ice-skating complex faltered.

The community-led proposal could face stiff competition. A public list of companies that have shown interest in redeveloping the armory include Steiner Studios, the film and television production studio, and Agritecture, an urban-farming advisory group.

A spokesman for Agritecture confirmed that the group is partnering on a separate bid. Steiner Studios declined to comment.

Andrew Kimball, the president of the Economic Development Corporation, would not discuss specific proposals, because the selection process is underway.

Unlike past efforts, the latest redevelopment push will be supported with $200 million in city and state funding. And the city began the project with a community engagement process to understand what local residents wanted, Mr. Kimball said.

The E.D.C. expects to select a proposal in about nine months, and the winner, which will receive a long-term lease on the property, must then pass the land-use review process. Construction could begin in late 2026.

Ms. Lobo’s group has already lined up potential investors for their project, including National Cooperative Bank and Rochdale Capital. “We do see this as a serious effort and one that we want to be a part of,” said John Holdsclaw IV, the president and chief executive officer of the Virginia-based Rochdale Capital.

The project has also received the support of the New York City Central Labor Council, which represents the building trades and other workers.

The Soul Snacks Cookie Company is among several businesses ready to move in. Ralph Rolle, 64, the company’s president and chief executive officer and a professional drummer, was part of a drum and bugle corps that used to rehearse in the armory in the mid-1970s.

Now, Mr. Rolle hopes to return to open a retail store there. His company, which bakes cookies at a factory in the Port Morris section of the Bronx, would also use the commercial kitchen space at the armory to train aspiring bakers.

“I’m very excited about the prospect of what is about to come,” he said.