When we last checked in with the Crown Heights armory, the plan was for it to become a community recreation center, like the Park Slope armory. Turns out that developers weren’t chomping at the bit to build the lovingly rendered sports complex seen above though, since at a meeting to discuss what residents wanted from the armory, the city’s Economic Development Corporation said that developers had submitted ideas for housing, office space, a ticketed event space and a hotel, according to DNA Info.
Adding yet another chapter to that old book, “Residents and Developers Want Different Things,” EDC vice president Lydia Downing shared what she said were the proposals so far from developers at a community forum to figure out what to do with the armory. What residents of Crown Heights want is either mixed-income housing or the community recreation center, but the EDC also warned that whatever happens will have to actually make money.
One development proposal the city has received would turn the building in to a hotel, which no one at the meeting wanted, and we can understand why. The last thing any neighborhood wants is a bunch of French people clad head to toe in Nets gear asking “Eh, where iz ze real Brooklyn?” Nothing was decided for sure at the meeting, but our guess is that in the grand spirit of “compromise,” developers will get their housing and residents will get their fitness center in the form of a gym in the building. That people lucky enough to win an affordable housing lottery will be able to use on Tuesdays from 2pm to 2:30pm.