Thomas MacMillan Photo
When she looks at the massive abandoned armory on Goffe Street, Claudette Robinson-Thorpe sees a one-stop center for kids, with roller rinks, computer labs, maybe a film studio down the hall.
“It is huge inside here,” Robinson-Thorpe, the neighborhood’s alderwoman, said during a visit to the big brick building. It’s big enough to run a variety of youth programs and still have room left over for renting out space to businesses, she said.
The state is in the process of “surplussing” the Goffe Street Armory building to the city. Ownership will be transferred to the city this year. The armory has already been figured into the $8 million savings promised by the mayor’s new Innovation Based Budgeting system.
While there’s no clear plan for what to do with the 240,000-square-foot facility, Alderwomen Bitsie Clark and Robinson-Thorpe are working to build momentum for a “Stop & Shop” of a youth center: a one-stop location filled with programs of all kinds. The alderwomen face a number of challenges in their quest, including a struggling economy and an aging building that may need millions of dollars of rehab work.
The building, which was abandoned by two National Guard units in 2008 and 2009, may need a variety of improvements before it’s useable, said City Plan Department Director Karyn Gilvarg. It could be filled with lead paint or asbestos, and it will need to be brought up to current building codes, including handicapped accessibility requirements. An elevator may need to be installed, heating and fire systems may need to be upgraded.
The city is hoping to either use the building itself, or find a use that would add to the city’s tax base, Gilvarg said.
Deputy Chief of Staff Che Dawson, who’s spearheading the city’s armory effort, said the building could be used for government storage. It could also be rented out for self-storage. Or it might interest businesses like film-production companies.
It might also make a good community or youth center, he said.
That’s the notion that excites Robinson-Thorpe. During a recent stop by the armory, she outlined a plan to combine a massive youth center with income-generating office space. “You can get over 20 entities in here and not even see each other.”
The armory could be a home to a multi-program youth center, “like a Stop and Shop,” Robinson-Thorpe said. It could have an after-school academy, doctor’s offices to fight obesity, a roller-skating rink, basketball courts, and state-of-the-art computer labs. These facilities could co-exist with offices that pay rent, bringing in income to fund the project, she said. Organizations like the welfare office or the Community Action Agency on Whalley Avenue could relocate to the Armory. That would bring in thousands of dollars in rent each month, Robinson-Thorpe said.
“I would like to get the whole city involved,” Robinson-Thorpe said. “It’s unlimited what you could do here.”
Robinson-Thorpe said she’s in outreach mode, trying to find partners to work on the armory project. She acknowledged that the building would need a great deal of work. “I mean it’s really old.” She put the cost of renovation “in the millions.”
“But it would be well worth it,” she added. “Our youth are in crisis right now.”
There are two full apartments in the armory that are designed to house caretakers, but she doesn’t want to see the building put to a residential use, Robinson-Thorpe said. “We’ll fight that tooth and nail,” she said. “It needs to come back to the community.”
Robinson-Thorpe compared it to the Q House, the Dixwell Avenue community center that used to be a place for youth to gather. “We need to get back to that.”
While there is a movement afoot to revitalize the Q House, Robinson-Thorpe said she does not support it. “That building needs to be torn down,” she said. The Q House isn’t as big as the armory, it doesn’t have the potential to bring in revenue, and it won’t be able to serve the whole city, she said.
“The Q House will always need grants,” she said.
Alongside Robinson-Thorpe, Downtown Alderwoman and youth advocate Clark has big dreams for the armory — and fond memories of going to dances there in the 1950s and ‘60s.
“It’s an incredible building. It’s gigantic,” she said. “When you walk in, people just gasp.” The main “parade floor” is what takes peoples breath away, Clark said. It’s a cavernous room that’s several stories tall.
“There’s tremendous potential and there’s enormous problems,” she said. “It’s an enormous, enormous undertaking.” But it could be tackled bit by bit, she said.
Clark said she’d like to eventually see a bowling alley, a roller rink, basketball courts, dance and recording studios, a snack bar, pinball machines. It could be a big, safe, entertaining place for young people to hang out. Clark compared it to the mall, where “you can go in a store and then come out and see if there are more boys who want to look at you… We don’t have a space like that.”
There are occasional teen dance parties downtown, but “they’re not long for this world,” Clark said. The armory could be a healthy, positive, teen hangout substitute for the mall that once stood downtown. “That’s the kind of space I would love to see,” Clark said. “It would be just great.”
And it doesn’t have to be all non-profit, Clark said. The bowling alley or the skating rink could be private businesses.
Whatever happens, it has to happen soon, she said. As the armory sits there unused, the cost of rehabilitating it will only rise.
“It seems to me that everything is up for grabs,” Clark said. “Why not dream big?”