Leave the patriotic kids alone!
City Council Speaker Julie Menin put the party-loving bigwigs at the Park Avenue Armory on blast over their “ill-advised” lawsuit to evict a child cadet group from its historic meeting place.
The Knickerbocker Greys have been headquartered in the Upper East Side armory since 1902, when Theodore Roosevelt was president.
“The Conservancy is supposed to conserve the Armory’s history, not chase it away,” Menin and Councilwoman Virginia Maloney said in a scathing letter sent Monday to Seventh Regiment Armory Conservancy President Rebecca Robertson.
The nonprofit Park Avenue Armory has received $25 million in city cultural funds over the years, the council members noted.
The armory leases the property from the state — and lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul even approved a law in 2024 to prevent the Knickerbocker Greys from being evicted.
But the armory executives then filed a “tone-deaf” federal lawsuit to overturn it, the council members fumed
The Greys have been fighting eviction from their headquarters — an 800-square-foot space in the sprawling 200,000-square foot facility — as the conservancy claims it needs the space for a planned renovation.
“Let us be clear: the attempted eviction of the Greys makes zero legal or practical sense and has sadly tarnished the Conservancy’s reputation,” said the lawmakers, who both represent parts of the Upper East Side.
The Post previously reported the nonprofit has been using the 146-year-old building to host exclusive affairs like fashion shows by Giorgio Armani, Marc Jacobs and Oscar de la Renta. It has also been the site of after-parties with celebrity guest lists that include the likes of Beyoncé, Victoria Beckham and Orlando Bloom.
Menin and Maloney noted the armory is trying to boot the kids while rubbing elbows with high society.
The conservancy holds a 99-year lease of the Armory that it obtained in 2006 from the New York State Empire State Development Corporation.
Start your day with all you need to know
Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.
Thanks for signing up!
The lease includes a provision requiring the conservancy to support “interpretive and/or educational programs related to the social aesthetic, and military history of the [Armory] and other topics to the extent practicable” and to generally serve the public good as a tax-exempt nonprofit group.
The Greys occupy a small space in the basement, but the armory claims they no longer “fit in” with the group’s “arts-related” and “cultural” programs, according to the council members.
“The Conservancy claims it cannot properly renovate the Armory and fulfill its cultural mission without preventing the Greys from occupying just a few hundred of the Armory’s 100,000 square feet of usable space. This claim strains credulity,” Menin and Maloney said in the letter.
The Greys can argue at trial that their use of “less than 1%” of this “multi-story, City block-sized facility” will not interfere with the conservancy’s ability to use the armory, the council members said.
“Count us among the convinced,” Menin and Maloney said.
In the meantime, the Greys should be allowed to resume their classes and drill sessions, they argued.
“Given generous taxpayer funding for the Armory and widespread public support for the Greys, it would be wise and appreciated for the Conservancy to reassess its position,” the lawmakers said. “This dispute between two local charities should never have devolved into costly, lengthy litigation.”
A lawyer representing the Knickerbocker Greys welcomed the council members’ support.
“It’s a powerful, pointed, very sensible letter. It’s never too late for the Conservancy board to change course and drop those wasteful, senseless suits,” said Knickerbocker Greys counsel Howard Rogatnick.
The Seventh Regiment Armory Conservancy/Park Avenue Armory had no immediate comment.
