Survey Asks Bed-Stuy What To Do With Historic Armory Property

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — Neighbors in Bed-Stuy can help decide whether a massive armory building turns into a cultural center, new housing or even an urban garden.

A new survey launched by Assemblymember Stefani Zinerman asks residents to weigh in on the transformation of the Marcus Garvey Boulevard armory, which a team of Black-owned developers and architects began studying how to repurpose earlier this year.

The historic building — also known as the 13th Regiment Armory or Sumner Armory — extends a full block between Jefferson and Putnam avenues and is currently only partly taken up by a homeless shelter on the first floor.

Under the study, officials will decide whether it should be used instead for healthcare, fitness, technology, employment, job training, cultural programming, housing or another use.

Ideas floated in the survey include turning the building into a recreation space, transitional housing, a hospital-affiliated medical center, a large-scale urban garden, a job training center, a commercial market place or a cultural space.

It also asks neighbors to weigh in on how much of the historic structure should be preserved in the transformation and what goals they hope the space will achieve.

Find the survey here.

The study of the armory comes almost a decade after officials first announced it would be studied back in 2013.

Locals had pled for years for officials to figure out how to use the 232,000-square-foot space, which first opened in 1894.

The study is being led by architecture firm Freeform Deform and Urbane, a development consulting company whose credits include the redevelopment of Flatbush Caton Market, according to Zinerman.

A $125,000 grant secured under former Assemblymember Tremaine Wright will pay for the study, which will take on a zoning analysis, design and construction estimates and ultimately come up with proposals for the building.