Bedford-Union Armory Plan Loses Critical Support Of City Council Rep, Brooklyn Prez

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — A contentious plan to turn the historic old armory building at Union Street and Bedford Avenue into a combination rec center, office building and apartment complex (see rendering above) lost a critical vote of confidence Thursday. At a dramatic afternoon press conference, City Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo — who represents the Crown Heights neighborhood at City Hall — said she wouldn't support the developer's vision for the Bedford-Union Armory in its current form.

For breaking updates on the armory overhaul and other local stories that affect you, sign up for email alerts from your neighborhood Patch site in NYC.

Cumbo called the plan, under which half the armory's new housing would be luxury, "gentrification at its worst" — but said taking a position on it was the most difficult decision of her life, according to Gothamist and New York Daily News reporters in attendance. (Scroll down to read their tweets.)

The local politician's big announcement at Brooklyn Borough Hall was given even more weight by the presence of the city's two top watchdogs — Comptroller Scott Stringer and Public Advocate Letitia James — as well as Borough President Eric Adams, who, like Cumbo, has voting power in land-use decisions.

All three officials announced they were siding with the councilwoman.

This wall of unified defiance could spell the death of the deal. It also comes as a bit of a middle finger to NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose office is in charge of the armory's redevelopment — and chose private developer BFC Partners to make it happen.

Here's what the armory looks like now:

And here's a rendering of what it would look like under the developer's plan:

In a statement sent Thursday to Patch, a spokesman for BFC Partners said the "economic realities" of building a new rec center, affordable housing and cheap nonprofit office space at the Bedford-Union Armory have left the developer with no choice but to put around half the armory's new apartments on the luxury market.

Read more here about BFC Partners' plan for the armory — and the increasingly fierce "kill the deal"campaign against it.

Cumbo waffled for months over whether to back BFC's vision. Politico is calling her eventual stance "the latest split between the Council and the mayor as he pushes rezonings."

Cea Weaver, research director for New York Communities for Change and a leading activist on this issue, said that while she's glad to see the councilwoman waffling in the right direction now, the fight won't be over until the deal is 100 percent dead.

"There's still a long way to go," Weaver said. She and fellow activists still plan to go ahead with a demonstration they planned outside Cumbo's "state of the district" speech Thursday night at 177 Myrtle Ave., she said.

Vaughn Armour, another Crown Heights activist with the same group, took an even harsher stance in a statement sent to Patch:

"My neighbors and I see through this dog-and-pony show. This is nothing but hype and bluster, and if Laurie Cumbo were really against this project, it would be dead tomorrow.

"We can't afford six months of being lied to only to see this project go forward in the end. This will bring more housing we can't afford, and increase evictions and homelessness in a neighborhood that is being taken over by gentrifying developers like BFC.

"BFC stands for Bad for Crown Heights. Every time their project moves forward, our elected officials are betraying us. This deal must be killed and it must be killed now."

This story has been updated. Rendering courtesy of BFC Partners