by Sam Dolnick

Bronx advocates said that the City Council vote on Monday to reject a $310 million project to build a mall inside the Kingsbridge Armory provided an opportunity to come up with a more community-oriented plan for the massive red-brick castle.

City Council members who voted down the project 45 to 1, with one abstention, said that the plan, proposed by the Related Companies, would have created hundreds of jobs that would have paid at or around the state’s minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, pay that they called too low to support local families.

They wanted Related to pledge that every job at the mall would pay at least $10 an hour, arguing that the company was set to receive more than $50 million in tax credits and exemptions. Many cities across the country have similar requirements for projects built using public money.

But Related said that any requirement to pay above minimum wage would make it impossible to attract tenants or secure financing.

The two sides negotiated through Sunday night, but with neither willing to bend, the Council voted to kill project, quashing plans that the developer said would have created 1,000 construction jobs and about 1,200 permanent ones.

The Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance, a coalition of labor, religious and community leaders, said it would seek to work with a developer that would turn the building into a community resource that offers space for recreation, cultural and educational activities.

“We want development that will improve the community but not at the expense of pushing poor people out,” said Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter, a longtime Bronx advocate.

The vote was a surprising defeat for the Bloomberg administration, which championed the project as a valuable investment that would spur much-needed economic development in the city’s poorest borough.

But to many in the Bronx, the Kingsbridge Armory project and the prospect of so many low-wage jobs crystallized what opponents regarded as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s disregard for working-class families. The fight for a “living wage” became a populist battle against “profits for barons,” in the words of Bronx Borough President Rubén Díaz Jr., and an opportunity to hold developers that use public funds accountable.

“I am against any irresponsible project that would bring negative impacts to the community,” said Councilwoman Annabel Palma, the leader of the Bronx delegation. She cited traffic problems and parking concerns, along with the low wages, as the project’s biggest problems.

Mr. Bloomberg called the vote “disappointing and irrational.” In a statement, he said, “As a result of today’s vote, we can say one thing for sure: There will be no wages paid at all at the Kingsbridge Armory for the foreseeable future.”

Related, which has built projects across the city, including several in the Bronx, blamed the collapse of the plan on “outside groups imposing artificial wage demands that do not exist anywhere else in New York City or New York State.”

The armory, a federal, state and city landmark on Kingsbridge Road at Jerome Avenue, was built by the city between 1912 and 1917 and was used to store arms and ammunition and to train troops. Since then, it has been used as a shelter for homeless women and a concert space, among many other incarnations, but it has sat vacant for more than a decade.

On Monday, council members played down the importance of the wage issue and maintained that land-use problems were the main reason for the outcome of the vote, part of the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure. But for months, the wage dispute has drowned out other concerns.

Advocates praised the Council’s vote, and members of the alliance gathered Monday at City Hall with signs saying, “Bloomberg to Bronx: Drop dead.”

Mr. Bloomberg’s office said he would veto the Council’s decision. But the Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, said she had the two-thirds majority vote needed to override him.

The armory vote, originally scheduled for last week, was postponed to allow for further negotiation. One potential compromise was a city fund to pay retail employees at the armory extra wages on top of what employers paid, or to provide them with MetroCards and other benefits. The fund would have been financed partly with the $5 million that Related offered to pay for the building. That idea collapsed when the city lawyers said aspects of it would run afoul of the State Constitution, Councilman Joel Rivera said.

The Council’s demand for higher paying wages was not unprecedented. Nearly 200 cities already require developers using public money to pay more than the minimum wage, according to Peter Dreier, a politics and urban policy professor at Occidental College in Los Angeles who has studied wage issues.

At the Kingsbridge Barber Shop, across the street from the hulking armory, barbers and customers alike said the community did not need a mall, or more low-wage work.

“People need jobs, but they don’t need chump change,” Jose Nuñez said as he cut a customer’s hair on a recent afternoon. “This building belongs to the people in this area.”

From the barber’s chair, Courtney Brooks agreed. “We’re not suckers in the Bronx,” he said. “We’re not going to take whatever somebody is offering.”