March to Protest Armory Developer Choice

New Rochelle residents upset with the choice of developers to readapt the Armory will take to the streets Wednesday.

Led by the United Veterans Memorial and Patriotic Association, marchers will meet at the American Legion Hall, at 112 North Ave., at 6 p.m. They will begin the march at 6:45 p.m., reassembling on the steps of City Hall, at 515 North Ave., at 7:15 p.m.

The group will go into City Hall in time for the 7:30 p.m. Citizens to Be Heard meeting, which is part of City Council's first meeting of the month.

People associated with the Save Our Armory Committee responded to a request for proposals to readapt the Armory into a performing arts center. The original proposal was not well received by Council, and a subsequent proposal was delivered to Development Commissioner Michael Freimuth a couple of hours before the council was to meet to choose a developer to whom a memorandum of understanding would be issued.

The proposal from Good Profit was estimated to cost $26 million. The Save Our Armory Committee's original proposal was estimated at $10.5 million, but the new proposal, which was well past the late-August deadline for submission of information, was $24.5 million.

An informal vote by the council directed Freimuth to draft an MOU to Good Profit Works, an organization that wants to create a market hall that focuses on regional food.