Armory Community Benefits Meeting 'Positive'

Just a quick note before we shut down for the weekend.

Yesterday, one day after the raucous hearing about the Kingsbridge Armory project at Lehman College, three of the major stakeholders in the project -- the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance (KARA), Community Board 7 and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. -- sat down to discuss strategy for striking a Community Benefits Agreement with the Related Companies, the Armory's designated developer.

John DeSio, a former Riverdale Review reporter who is now head of Diaz's press office, wouldn't go into details, but said the discussions were "positive." He said he sees the borough president's office as a "middle man" between KARA, CB7 and Related and will help them craft a CBA.

More on this later, but this is crunch time and it will be interesting to see how effective Diaz is in brokering a deal. He's criticized the CBAs that his predecessor Adolfo Carrion negotiated at Yankee Stadium and Gateway Center Mall (another Related project).