Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Will there be a vote on the Kingsbridge Armory development today?

The New York City Council is scheduled to vote on the Kingsbridge Armory project today, but negotiations on the CBA and its controversial living wage requirement are ongoing. This has led members of the Bronx delegation to seek a postponement of the vote, possibly until Monday.

It seems that the Bronx delegation has proposed to subsidize living wage jobs, initially with the $5 million purchase price for the armory (which itself is an incredible subsidy to the developer), and thereafter through a 5% surcharge on the developer's profits. This way, living wages could be mandated on all retail tenants, but the costs would fall on the city and the developer, negating the developer's argument that the wage requirement would make it difficult to attract tenants.

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