Regiment Files Suit Over Armory Site

NEW YORK CITY-The Seventh Regiment Fun and the Veterans of the Seventh Regiment filed a suit against a number of governmental agencies and officials including Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The suit alleges there was an “illegal transfer of land” and seeks an injunction to stop state legislation transferring ownership of the Armory Building at 643 Park Ave.

During a press conference announcing the suit, one regiment official said rumors were that a private concern wants to turn the site into a performing arts center. If the site’s 43,000-sf drill shed were redeveloped, the official estimated it could be worth $1 billion. The Regiment says the site would best be used as a military museum. Under that plan, a women’s shelter on the site would be maintained.

According to the complaint, in 1874 the city leased to the Regiment the plot of land bounded by 66th and 67th streets on the north and south and Park and Lexington avenues on the east and west as the site for a new armory. This land was “to be exclusively held and used for an Armory and Drill Rooms” by the Seventh Regiment, the complaint states. Pursuant to the terms of the lease, the land and the building are to be “held and used exclusively for an armory and drill rooms by” the Regiment. If the Armory ceases to be used exclusively by the Regiment for an armory and drill rooms, the lease terminates.