Mayor Adams, Gov. Hochul commit $200M to revitalizing the Bronx’s long-abandoned Kingsbridge Armory

Mayor Adams and Gov. Hochul pledged Tuesday that they will finally get the job done in turning the Bronx’s Kingsbridge Armory into a bustling site for economic activity — after decades of failed attempts by city and state leaders to find a use for the long-abandoned building.

The exact fate for the 5-acre W. Kingsbridge Road armory — which has stood mostly vacant since the U.S. military decommissioned it in 1996 — is still not clear.

But Adams and Hochul announced at a Tuesday morning press conference inside the cavernous armory that their administrations are investing $100 million each in a new plan for the structure that will kick off next month with the launch of a solicitation process for proposals from private developers.

“There is no limit to what we can do in this magnificent space,” Hochul said, listing off tech, film and TV production as well as urban agriculture and sustainable manufacturing as some potential uses for the site.

While $100 million for the project from Adams’ administration is a new investment, Hochul’s half was previously committed as a loan under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration.

Andrew Kimball, the CEO of the city Economic Development Corporation, which is going to oversee the solicitation process, said Hochul’s restructuring that loan as a grant.

“It puts us in a much more positive position to have a successful outcome,” Kimball said of the grant.

The solicitation process will focus on finding a developer who can satisfy a number of priorities for the site that were hashed out over the course of a nine-month engagement process that featured input from some 4,000 local community members, according to a blueprint released by City Hall.

Chief among those priorities is turning the armory into a space that creates good-paying union jobs for local residents, the blueprint states.

Deputy Mayor for Economic and Workforce Development Maria Torres-Springer said the city envisions selecting a developer for the site by early next year. Whatever proposal ends up being picked, a groundbreaking on construction is not expected until 2027, she added.

Adams said redeveloping the armory alone will produce some 1,100 new construction jobs. The site, once operational, will generate up to $10 billion in economic activity to the area, the mayor also said, citing rough estimates by his administration.

“This can be the anchor for the Bronx,” he said before pledging that “all of this madness of forgetting the Bronx ends today.”

“We’re going to get this done,” he added. “This is a legacy project.”

Since the military turned over the building to the city nearly three decades ago, city and state leaders have tried — and failed — to transform the building several times.

The most recent project that flopped was a bid to turn the armory into the world’s largest ice-skating center complete with a 5,000-seat arena and nine Olympic-size rinks. The plan, first announced in 2013, was ditched in 2021 by then-Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration due to funding and legal issues.

Reflecting on the past failures to revitalize the building, Hochul said she understands if there’s skepticism among local residents.

But she promised: “We will not disappoint you again. We’re not going to break your hearts.”