Con Ed Building Eyed for School

By JORDAN MOSS

When Con Ed turns off the lights for the last time at its Kingsbridge Road customer service center this fall, some community leaders hope the new tenant who turns them back on is the Board of Education.

Located at the epicenter of District 10's overcrowding crisis, the 40,000-square-foot facility is just what the doctor ordered for the area's ailing and insufficient stock of public schools, says John Reilly, executive director of the Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation, a non-profit group that owns 70 apartment buildings in the area.

Reilly wrote to Con Ed chairman Eugene McGrath on April 19 asking the company, which owns the building, to consider selling it to the school system, even if it falls short of the highest bid.

"We are not requesting you give away your building," Reilly wrote. "Con Ed should get a fair market value for the property. We are asking, however, that you not accept the fastest, highest bid and that you seriously consider working with the city toward a greater community objective."

Con Ed announced in April that it would close the service in favor of local alternative bill payment locations and a toll-free, 24-hour number.

Councilman Jose Rivera, the veteran Democrat whose district includes the Con Ed building, likes the idea of putting the building to public use.

"One of the ways that they can help alleviate the pain [of closing the service center] is to somehow transfer the building so that we can continue educating our children," Rivera said, adding, "I would like to place a call to Con Ed and lend my voice to the movement and convince them to turn that building over to educating our children."

Con Ed officials say they'll consider all ideas once the bidding process is over later this month. "We're in the process of reviewing all offers," said D. Joy Faber, a company spokeswoman. "Once all bids are received -- the deadline is May 19 -- we'll go through our evaluations and certainly take the community's concerns into consideration."

Because there are virtually no vacant lots or abandoned properties in the area, District 10 is perennially hungry for vacant space. District 10 officials and local education activists have been eyeing the Kingsbridge Armory for the same reason.

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