Small business owners in the Bronx have concerns about a redevelopment plan to give the historic Kingsbridge Armory a facelift.

“When I get into the neighborhood, not many shoe repairs around here. I learned this one from my country,” Bluechus Shoe Repair owner Christian Ramos said. “I’m from Ecuador. I was thinking, you know, let me do something that the neighborhood is really going to need. Like shining shoes.”

Twenty years later, Christian Ramos' shoe repair store in the Bronx is still in business.

What You Need To Know

  • Small business owners in the Bronx have concerns about a redevelopment plan to give the historic Kingsbridge Armory a facelift

  • The planned $200 million redevelopment of the Kingsbridge Armory at Jerome Avenue and West Kingsbridge Road was announced by Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams over the summer

  • Other business owners say they do not have leases, including Osmer Colindrez, who owns a nutrition store near the armory

  • At a rally outside of the facility Thursday, merchants accused their landlord of trying to push them out to profit from the redevelopment of the armory. Elected leaders joined them at the rally

He’s not sure how long it will last, given the planned $200 million redevelopment of the Kingsbridge Armory across the street at Jerome Avenue and West Kingsbridge Road, which was announced by Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams over the summer.

“I renewed my lease by four more years.” Ramos said. “But believe me or not, it is really hard to put it [on] my landlord to get a new lease, but after three to four years, we don’t know what’s going on, if the Kingsbridge Armory is going to turn into something else.”

Such as bigger businesses, for example, that could put smaller mom-and-pop shops out of business.

Other business owners say they do not have leases, including Osmer Colindrez, who owns a nutrition store near the armory.

At a rally outside of the facility Thursday, merchants accused their landlord of trying to push them out to profit from the redevelopment of the armory. Elected leaders joined them at the rally.

“We have businesses who have contributed to our community year after year, decade after decade, and yet they have not had leases,” Councilmember Pierina Sanchez said. “How are you supposed to make decisions?”

“But the immediacy right now is Dec. 31,” Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson said. “The goal is to figure out how we can find a way to work with the landlord to get something, whether it’s a lease agreement by Dec. 31.”

Rally organizers said without a lease, they’re also ineligible to take advantage of a $75 million public/private small business loan fund to help small businesses recover from COVID-related financial hardship — a difficult reality in a community of minorities and immigrants who already face financial challenges.

Ramos said he’s happy he has a lease for now, but is worried about the future.

“We have to think about after the COVID, we’re going to have a really hardship,” Ramos said. “How to be innovators to try to keep and stay in business?”

The landlord did not respond to NY1’s request for comment.

A spokesperson from the New York City Economic Development Corporation said, “Small businesses are the backbone of New York City and were an integral part in the creation of the ‘Together for Kingsbridge Vision Plan,’ a nine-month-long community engagement process, and it will continue to work with small businesses.”

There were two previous attempts to redevelop the armory, in 2009 and 2013, under then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

One idea included a mall, and another included an ice skating rink. Neither of those projects got off the ground.