The Postal Service has issued a Final Determination to relocate retail services in La Jolla, California, thus paving the way for the eventual sale of the historic New Deal post office. Tom Samra, Vice President, Facilities, was responsible for reviewing the appeals, and not unexpectedly, he came to the same decision that he made regarding the relocation of the Bronx … Read More
Brands at risk: The OIG looks at the USPS-CBRE contract
The USPS Office of Inspector General has just issued an audit report about the Postal Service’s contract with CB Richard Ellis. CBRE became the Postal Service's exclusive real estate agent in June 2011. Considering that the Postal Service leases 24,000 properties and owns 9,000, that's a big portfolio to manage, and outsourcing to CBRE was a big step. The … Read More
Newark’s Lautenberg Post Office may be sold: Is the Senator rolling over in his grave?
The General Services Administration (GSA) is looking to purchase the Frank L. Lautenberg Post Office and Courthouse in Newark, New Jersey, from the Postal Service. According to a GSA prospectus from April 2013, the GSA would “demolish the postal workspace for future useable office space.” The prospectus says the Postal Service currently occupies about 300,000 square feet of the building’s 430,000 … Read More
USPS to Bronx: Drop dead — the GPO must go
The Postal Service has decided to go ahead with the sale of the historic Bronx General Post Office. Tom Samra, Vice President of Facilities for the USPS, has issued his “Final Decision for Relocation of Retail Services in Bronx, New York.” (A copy is here.) The Bronx GPO is on the National Register of Historic Places, it's an official New … Read More
Binding the nation together: Berkeley and the Bronx join forces to save the post office
For our Founding Fathers, post offices and post roads played an essential role in “binding our nation together.” Congress reaffirmed that vision when it passed the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970: “The Postal Service shall have as its basic function the obligation to provide postal services to bind the Nation together.” The leaders of the Postal Service appear to have … Read More
Legacy for Sale: Historic Post Offices on the Market
The New York Times has an excellent front-page article by Robin Pogrebin about the Postal Service’s push to sell off its historic post office buildings. It includes a great photo scroll, and it’s getting lots of very lively comments. As the Times explains, the Postal Service owns nearly a quarter of its 31,000 post offices (it leases space for the rest), and … Read More
Historic Post Offices Sold or For Sale
Annapolis, Maryland Berkeley, California Bethesda, Maryland Boone, North Carolina Bronx, New York Buffalo, New York Burlingame, California Camas, Washington Charleston, Illinois Cheraw, South Carolina Eugene, Oregon Fairfield Connecticut Fernandina Beach, Florida Firestone Station, South Gate, California Flemington, New Jersey Fullerton, California Geneva, Illinois Glendale, California Gulfport, Mississippi Greenwich, Connecticut Huntington Beach, California Kingston, Pennsylvania La Jolla, California Lakewood, New … Read More
The Annexation of the Post Office
A new trend is emerging. The Postal Service is closing post offices in downtown areas and busy shopping centers, and moving retail services to a carrier annex on the outskirts of town. The “annexation” process began a long time ago, when the Postal Service started moving carriers from the main post office or a branch out to an annex, leaving … Read More
Eureka! The Postal Service finds gold in California
The Postal Service has been actively selling off historic post office buildings for over a year now. About forty have been sold or put up for sale. They’re scattered around the country, but for some reason more than a third of them are in California. Last week news came out that one of the most beautiful post offices in the … Read More
The National Trust joins the fight to save the post office
[view:slideshow=panel_pane_1] THE NATIONAL TRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION has named the Historic Post Office Building to its annual list of the 11 most endangered places. The Trust has a story, a slideshow, a feature on the post office in Geneva, Illinois, and a press release (which has the most details). The Chicago Tribune also has a story, and the Associated Press has another. … Read More
Off RAOI, On POStPlan
In July 2011, the Postal Service announced the Retail Access Optimization Initiative (RAOI) and published a list of 3,652 post offices being studied for closure. Over the course of the next several months, nearly 400 offices were removed from the original list. (The list of those removed is here.) In May 2012, the Postal Service announced POStPlan and published … Read More
And the winner is . . . Trump selected to redevelop DC’s Old Post Office
The General Services Administration has selected Donald Trump to redevelop the Old Post Office building in downtown D.C. The grand old icon is going to be converted into a luxury hotel, complete with “world renowned restaurants, a spa and conference facilities.” The GSA says turning the building over to private hands will save the federal government millions of dollars in … Read More
Post Offices removed from the RAOI (as of Feb. 3, 2012)
This list contains post offices removed from the list of 3,652 post offices originally on the list for the Retail Access Optimization Initiative (RAOI). They are no longer under study for closure. The list was submitted by the Postal Service to the Postal Regulatory Commission on Feb. 3, 2012. Office City State ZIP ALEKNAGIK ALEKNAGIK AK 99555 ANVIK ANVIK AK … Read More
Post Offices with Expiring Leases (by date)
The following post offices appear to have leases that expire between January 1, 2012 and May 15, 2012, the day the moratorium on closings ends. This information was compiled using the Leased Facilities reports on the USPS website. (NB: The facilities reports on the USPS website have not been updated since March 2011, and the Postal Service has not responded to requests to … Read More
Post Offices with Expiring Leases
The following post offices appear to have leases that expire between January 1, 2012 and May 15, 2012, the day the moratorium on closings ends. This information was compiled using the Leased Facilities reports on the USPS website. (NB: The facilities reports on the USPS website have not been updated since March 2011, and the Postal Service has not responded … Read More
