NEW YORK CITY—City officials and executives from Bedford Courts—a joint venture of  BFC Partners and Slate Property Group—unveiled Thursdsay a nearly 500,000-square-foot mixed-use project to be built at the now vacant Bedford Union Armory property in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

The propety will be redeveloped on a long-term ground lease from the city into a residential building featuring more than 300 housing units, half of which will be affordable, and a commercial building containing a recreational facility, a community event space, and office space. The armory dates back more than 100 years to 1903. The Bedford Union Armory occupies nearly an entire city block, and is located near the Franklin Avenue subway station.

Officials from the NYC Economic Development Corp. as well as city and local political officials and community leaders were on hand for today's announcement.

"The Bedford Union Armory has been a centerpiece of the Crown Heights community for more than a century, and by reactivating it, we are building upon its potential to benefit the entire neighborhood," says NYCEDC president Maria Torres-Springer.

"Our vision to enliven and reactivate the Bedford Union Armory for the Crown Heights neighborhood is now a reality," says Don Capoccia, a partner with Joseph Ferrara and Brandon Baron at BFC Partners. "This exciting project promotes the resurgence of development in the area with much-needed affordable housing, commercial space and community recreational facilities. By providing new amenities and services for the community, all of its residents, businesses, cultural and community organizations will benefit for generations to come."

David Schwartz, co-founder and principal of Slate Property Group, adds, "We have envisioned a concept like the Bedford Union Armory for years as we continue to focus on ways to use our resources to give back. We're looking forward to working on this specific project because we have an opportunity to create affordable housing while also preserving a space that's ingrained in and important to the community."

New York Knicks' forward and Brooklyn native Carmelo Anthony and the Carmelo Anthony Foundation will assist with the fit-out of the recreational facility, which could include basketball courts, a swimming pool, and an indoor turf field.

CAMBA, a Brooklyn-based non-profit organization, will operate and provide associated programming for the recreational facility and community event space.

NYCEDC and local elected officials co-hosted group discussions with local community leaders from 23 organizations and conducted two public meetings in October 2014 with nearly 250 community members to discuss how best to redevelop the Bedford Union Armory site. Following these meetings, NYCEDC negotiated with RFP respondents so that projects more closely reflected community input and eventually selected Bedford Courts, LLC to undertake the project.

Moving to the borough of Manhattan, last week the NYCEDC and the New York City Housing Preservation and Development announced released an RFP for the development of a 7,000-square-foot parcel of land at 126th Street and 3rd Avenue in East Harlem, which could provide up to 70,000 total square feet of commercial space.

In addition, the two agencies and the developers of the remaining land parcels in the E125 (East 125th St.) project site, the Richman Group, Equity One, and Monadnock Development, have agreed to expand upon earlier affordable housing commitments and will create an additional 200 units of affordable housing as part of the project and bring the total number of affordable units to 800.

City officials related that the issuance of the RFP and the new agreement with the E125 developers, will result in the introduction of 1,000 residential units as well as hundreds of thousands of square feet of commercial, retail and public space to East Harlem.