The Postal Service has ended its contract with CBRE as the agency’s exclusive real estate provider. A few months ago, the Postal Service awarded a contract to a new broker, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL). Los Angeles-based CBRE (aka CB Richard Ellis), the world’s largest commercial real estate firm, became the sole provider of real estate services for the Postal Service in … Read More
Morristown NJ may buy its historic post office
Morristown Green: It’s not your typical fixer-upper. Walls are crumbling. Ceilings have gaping holes. Once-shiny brass fixtures hide under coats of paint. Bathrooms look like they have not been used–or cleaned–since the Wilson Administration, when the Morristown Post Office opened. Still, town officials saw possibilities when they toured the place on Friday. “I’m excited about the prospect of restoring this … Read More
Historic New Deal Post Office in Santa Barbara, CA, headed for sale
The Postal Service is making plans to sell the historic New Deal post office on Acapata Street in downtown Santa Barbara, California, according to a report in Noozhawk.com. Meiko Patton, the USPS communications programs specialist for the Sacramento and Sierra Coastal districts, says the building has become too large for the agency’s needs. The Postal Service “would like to keep” … Read More
Multiple buyers want iconic downtown Post Office building in Topeka, KS
cjonliine.com: The historic Post Office building in downtown Topeka has stirred strong interest from buyers, even with a price tag of $1.65 million — but while speed may be of the essence in mail delivery, its process governing building sales is much slower. “We’ve had high interest in the building and multiple offers on the building, which at this point in … Read More
Postal Service sells historic building where mailbags were made
BizJournal.com: For roughly five decades, the U.S. Postal Service facility at 2135 Fifth St. NE in Eckington (in Washington, DC), was the only equipment shop for the entire postal system, manufacturing millions of mailbags and hundreds of thousands of postal locks every year. Last week, the Postal Service sold the 79,380-square-foot historic building, located on a 2.5-acre lot, for $12.25 million… The … Read More
Winchester IL post office faces emergency suspension over lease issue
The City of Winchester, Illinois, has just filed an appeal with the Postal Regulatory Commission challenging the Postal Service’s decision to close the post office over a lease renewal issue. Winchester is the county seat of Scott County, and its post office serves several government agencies, the administrative offices for the public school system, and numerous businesses. The post office … Read More
Emergency Suspensions of Post Offices in FY 2015
According to its Annual Compliance Reports to the Postal Regulatory Commission, the Postal Service did not discontinue a single post office in FY 2014 and FY 2015. Thanks to public protest and pressure from Congress, there appears to be an unofficial moratorium on post office closures. If Senator Carper’s IPOST bill becomes law, this moratorium will become official and no … Read More
How the Postal Service sold Richmond’s Saunders Station PO for a song
Back in October 2015, the Postal Service sold the historic 1937 Saunders Station post office in Richmond, Virginia. At the time, the sale price was not made public, but as discussed in this previous post, there was reason to wonder if the sale made sense financially. Turns out, the sale makes hardly any sense at all. A reader of STPO … Read More
Mankato MN post office listed for sale at $1.65 million
Those private developers and groups with dreams of how to reuse the downtown Mankato, Minnesota, post office now know the price tag on the historic property. The Postal Service has just listed it for $1.65 million on the USPS-CBRE webstie (uspspropertiesforsale.com). The two-story 61,555-square-foot building sits on 1.5 acres, taking up much of a city block. There is a large … Read More
South Florida P&DC goes for $5.8 million more than the USPS sold it for, just two months ago
The City of Pembroke Pines, Florida, just got a nice Christmas present, courtesy of the U.S. Postal Service. On October 23, 2015, the Postal Service closed on a deal to sell the South Florida P & DC to the City of Pembroke Pines for $17.88 million. Today, less than two months later, the City announced that it had sold the … Read More
Richmond’s historic Saunders Station post office sold, finally
After trying to dispose of it for over four years, the Postal Service has finally sold the historic 1937 Saunders Station post office at 1625 Broad Street in Richmond, Virginia. The Postal Service apparently got ahead of itself and began renting space for the new location of the post office back in 2011, when it originally expected to sell the … Read More
Damaged downtown Napa post office listed for sale
The Postal Service has officially listed Napa’s earthquake-damaged downtown post office building for sale on the USPS-CBRE Properties for Sale website. An asking price was not provided, so it will be up to bidders to make their best offers for the historic property. The post office, which was built in 1933 in the Art Deco style, was badly damaged in … Read More
Another post office in Houston earmarked for relocation and disposal
The Postal Service hasn’t discontinued many post offices over the past couple of years, but it has closed some for emergency suspensions, and it has also relocated several others. In some cases, the Postal Service relocated from one leased property to another, moving to a smaller space where the rent was cheaper. In other cases, the Postal Service moved out … Read More
Help save Napa’s historic post office from the wrecking ball
The National Trust for Historic Preservation is once again taking on the Postal Service. After successfully challenging the sale of the Berkeley post office earlier this year, the Trust is now trying to save the historic Franklin Station post office in Napa, California. The post office, an Art Deco gem built in 1933, was damaged by the earthquake last August. … Read More
The true cost for restoring service standards and why the Postal Service can afford it
A couple of weeks ago, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) announced that it would cost the Postal Service $1 billion to comply with an amendment requiring the Postal Service to revert to the service standards for First Class mail and periodicals that were in effect on July 1, 2012. The amendment was proposed by Representative Chaka Fattah and approved by the … Read More
Historic Houston post office headed for demolition
Next week the Postal Service will close the post office and processing center on Franklin Street in downtown Houston. It’s a historic building, eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, but it looks as though it is headed for demolition. In a "memorandum of agreement" about the disposal, the Postal Service states that it "anticipates demolition of the … Read More