At the tail end of a long-awaited community forum that assessed the dormant status of the Kingsbridge National Ice Center, Vera Navratilova finally got her turn to ask a pointed question left dangling for some time: when is the city going to release KNIC’s lease, and when is the groundbreaking?

The question was directed at a dais of city officials and to John Neary, a principal of the highly-anticipated KNIC project, sitting at seven-member panel Feb. 17. The two-prong meeting put a sharp focus on the “unintended consequences” the large project could bring to the neighborhood but also asked where the project stood.

“We will kindly and willingly give site control to the developer once they meet the conditions of financing,” said Charlie Samboy, the government and community relations Bronx representative for the New York City Economic Development Corporation, an ad hoc city agency that’s holding the lease in escrow. “There isn’t a hard deadline by when they have to start construction, but there is a hard deadline when they have to have the first phase of the project done.”

Neary, a soft-spoken man with icy white hair, offered a hint of movement between the EDC and KNIC but left it there.

“There is an active, ongoing dialogue with discussion between…EDC and the Kingsbridge team,” said Neary before the packed crowd at Monroe College. “We don’t know when they’re going to be complete, but they’re active. We’re working diligently on them, we’re working very hard on them.”

Just what the two sides are specifically working on remained offline, with Neary deflecting questions from the Norwood News over the ongoing discussions.

Senator Gustavo Rivera, representing Kingsbridge Heights, a largely working class neighborhood, organized the meeting. For several weeks, members from the People Power Movement, a an activist group based in Kingsbridge, met with Sen. Rivera expressing concern over the project, viewed as a harbinger for the community and borough at large. The meeting also came amid KNIC’s approval of a state loan to jumpstart the project. The group is one growing voices that have expressed concern over the project.

Within the last year, neighbors have noticed an uptick in rents along the commercial spine of Kingsbridge Heights, with small time shops bearing the brunt. Other groups have pointed to the sudden rise in Major Capital Improvement projects by landlords of residential buildings, who raise rents following renovations.

But Rivera was quick to delineate KNIC’s position as a neighborhood partner rather than foe, casting landlords as opportunists speculating on a massive project.

“We have to realize that there are so many things [KNIC] could control as far as what’s going on inside the building. The things that we are talking about are happening outside the building,” said Rivera, doubling as a mediator throughout the meeting. “If an owner wants  to be, pardon my French, a scumbag, he or she is going to be scumbag…Because it’s happening outside, they have no control over it. But we can resist it as a community and push back.”

At Rivera’s behest, representatives from the New York City Small Business Services and New York City Housing Preservation and Development department were on hand to answer questions in a kind of one-stop shopping style approach. Residents and merchants who’ve experienced run-ins were made aware of the city agencies that would take landlords to task. In the audience was a heavy presence of members of the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance, a neighborhood group that help lead a fight to secure a Community Benefits Agreement tethered to the KNIC project.

But much of the community’s remarks were largely statements that edged on the brink of venting. Some moments became outright aggressive, with plenty of heckles coming from Local 79 Construction & General Building Laborers, a labor union who appeared to verbally strong arm KNIC into providing union-backed jobs.

Special interest groups aside, a broader consensus was reached from the community: KNIC, and by extension, the city, should have a higher frequency of meetings to discuss the status of the project.

“Just make sure that these forums happen a little bit more often because it’s very much needed,” said Patricia Charles, a Bronx resident.