Developer for NYC Kingsbridge Armory midget site picked
New York CIty, NY — The New York City Economic Development Corp. has picked The Related Companies to redevelop The Bronx’s Kingsbridge Armory – a former Post World War II indoor midget track venue.
The Related’s plans include renovating what has been billed as the world’s largest armory into mostly commercial space. Related’s plans, whose details were not available as of press time, include some community space among a big box retailer, a cinema, a bank branch, a fitness center and a local business incubator to fit within the armory’s 575,000 square feet.
The EDC picked The Related Companies’ bid Monday, ending 12 years of false planning starts for the four-block square Northwest Bronx building. The city inherited the building when the Army National Guard’s moved out in 1996. The castle-styled building was constructed in 1912-17 to house the Eighth Artillery Rainbow Division but has had various civilian uses into the 1990s.
Local midget car promoter Jack Kochman leased 180,000 square feet of the armory and reopened it as Kingsbridge Speedrome Dec. 4, 1946.
Spectators filed into the 4,000 box seats to watch midgets and NASCAR-sanctioned stock cars race on a concrete one-fifth-mile oval under the armory’s 121-foot-tall roof on winters into 1962.
Bicycle velodrome races, stockholders meetings and boat shows were also held in the armory until the New York Coliseum at Columbus Circle opened in the 1950s.
The Related Companies last peoposed developing the year-round retail part of the International Speedway Corp.’s 2002-06 Staten Island Raceway proposal. Related helped build and develop the Time-Warner Building which stands on the Coliseum site.
Sources: Walter Elliott