Our agreement with 8th Regiment Partners at the Kingsbridge Armory marks a transformative shift in how development can and should be done in our communities.
This agreement cements NWBCCC’s role as co-developer of 20% of the entire project and establishes a community-governed structure that shapes the Armory’s long-term operations and benefits. It reflects the months of good-faith negotiation and secures key commitments from the Together for Kingsbridge Vision Plan, maximizing community ownership, delivering good union jobs, protecting small businesses, and ensuring high environmental standards. Learn more about our agreement!
At the Armory, we have set a new precedent for community ownership and co-governance over economic development in the Bronx.
For over 30 years, NWBCCC has believed that this extraordinary public asset could become a powerful engine for equitable, sustainable, and community-centered economic development.
In the fall of 2022, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, local elected officials, and community leaders re-launched a visioning process for the redevelopment of the Kingsbridge Armory, Together for Kingsbridge. We saw a powerful opportunity to transform the Armory into an economic and cultural engine that Bronx residents and workers co-own and share in the wealth it creates! We embarked on a historic effort to gather input from over 4,000 Bronx residents, workers, and institutional leaders to create a shared community vision plan for Our Armory. The resulting agreement with 8th Regiment Partners includes elements never before secured in a City-owned project.
Learn more about our community vision for the Kingsbridge Armory!
Our Coalition of Accountability continues to maximize our community vision through ongoing negotiations!
8th Regiment Partners has put forward a proposal to redevelop the Kingsbridge Armory into a thriving, community-centered campus that delivers economic opportunity, social infrastructure, and cultural vitality to the Bronx. The first phase includes a state-of-the-art venue and entertainment space, sports fields, cultural and commercial space, light manufacturing, a workforce development educational facility, and over 25,000 square feet of community space. Phase two includes approximately 450 units of permanently affordable rental housing adjacent to the Armory. The construction of the Armory will be executed under a project labor agreement, ensuring fair wages and benefits for construction workers. 32BJ will represent all service workers for the project.
While we are proud of what has been secured through negotiations, we continue to urge further progress through the public review process, and through negotiations of additional benefits for our community. 8th Regiment Partners has committed to signing a legally binding Community Benefits Agreement with a broad coalition of faith-based, labor, community, and small business stakeholders.
Our guiding principles:
-
The project must use union labor during construction and commit to creating good-paying, union jobs after construction is complete. Workers should have the right to organize and secure fair wages, benefits, and protections to support their families.
-
The project must include a plan for the community to have real ownership in the Armory. This means creating ways for Bronx residents to have a say in how it’s run and making sure profits from the project are reinvested back into our neighborhoods.
-
The project must protect the local businesses that have served our community for years. This includes providing affordable space for small businesses and making sure new businesses in the Armory don’t push out or compete unfairly with those nearby.
-
The project must meet high environmental standards, using sustainable building practices that reduce pollution and improve energy efficiency. This ensures the Armory helps create a healthier environment for our families and future generations.
This fight started with us!
Since 1997, we have brought together local residents, small businesses and grassroots, faith, and labor institutions to fight for community-driven development at the Armory. Our youth leaders designed the first plan for an educational, recreational, and entrepreneurial center. Since then, we have raised expectations for development in the Bronx and across the country when we:
secured $31 million in renovations to save the Armory from deterioration,
organized the City Council to vote NO on a proposed poverty-wage mall that was backed by Mayor Bloomberg—a historic victory over corporate power in our city,
negotiated a ground-breaking and legally-binding Community Benefits Agreement for living wages, local hire, and shared revenue and space for the community at the Armory. It remains the most progressive CBA of its kind in the country.
Small business owners and street vendors are essential to the fabric of our neighborhoods.
They sustain families, build our local economy, and enrich the culture of our community. In partnership with the Kingsbridge Merchants Association, we work with small business owners and street vendors along the Kingsbridge commercial corridor to leverage legal and city-wide resources and community support to defend against harassment and negotiate fair leases that sustain them for the long haul. We organize to ensure redevelopment of the Kingsbridge Armory invests back into local business owners.
Vendors and business owners who have served our community for years deserve to grow and thrive alongside one of our community’s greatest assets.
As part of United for Small Businesses NYC, we work with legal, advocacy, and community groups across the city to turn the tide against displacement of small businesses as landlords aim to make way for higher-paying tenants. We fight to protect the jobs, community spaces, affordable resources, and wealth these small businesses root in our neighborhoods.
Through our coalition’s organizing efforts, we passed the City’s first commercial tenant anti-harassment legislation, enabling small business owners to take legal action to recover property, attorney fees, and damages when landlords harass them.
explore our policy platform to protect local business owners!
Small business displacement is cultural displacement. In order to protect New York’s vibrant culture, we forward a comprehensive platform to safeguard small businesses—including funding for legal services, protection for immigrant business owners and workers, a non-profit commercial development fund, and penalties for landlords who warehouse vacant commercial properties.
As communities across the Bronx face gentrification, we are stronger together.
We can protect our local communities and advance a comprehensive vision to ensure the Bronx is an affordable place to live for all!
Our Bronx-wide Principles for Development Without Displacement were co-created by community organizations across the borough with a long history of organizing residents for justice.
fight forward with us