Peter Byrne, author of Going Postal: U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein's Husband Sells Post Offices to His Friends, Cheap, has a piece in the East Bay Express about the new OIG report about CBRE's contract to manage the Postal Service's real estate portfolio. Byrne's report on CBRE was probably the motivation for the OIG's investigation, so his new article is well worth … Read More
Government says company part-owned by Feinstein’s husband abuses post office contract
David Dayen: CBRE, a giant real estate company partially owned by Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s husband Richard Blum, is costing the U.S. Postal Service millions of dollars a year in lease overpayments, and its exclusive contract should be immediately canceled, the service’s Inspector General has found. Eyebrows rose when the USPS made the contract with CBRE in June 2011 for all real estate transactions. Blum chaired … Read More
OIG recommends terminating the USPS-CBRE contract and refers cases for criminal investigation
The Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General has issued its fourth report criticizing the Postal Service’s oversight of the contract with its real estate broker, CBRE. It’s entitled “Postal Service Management of CBRE Real Estate Transactions.” The OIG finds fault with both the leasing deals and the sales of postal property, and it recommends terminating the contract with CBRE. The … Read More
York PA post office resold for more than twice what the USPS sold it for
The historic post office in York, PA, has just been sold by one developer to another. In August 2013, York businessman Themi Sacarellos bought the post office from the Postal Service for $350,000. It had been assessed at $1,480,440, and it was initially listed at $800,000. The USPS-CBRE Properties for Sale website currently lists it at $650,000 and "sold." After … Read More
Congresswoman Barbara Lee proposes moratorium on sale of historic post offices
Congresswoman Barbara Lee of California (13th District) has introduced legislation to halt the sale and consolidation of historic Postal Service facilities. The Moratorium on US Historic Postal Buildings Act would prevent the Postal Service from selling any facility until all buildings listed or eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places are removed from the auction block. The text of … Read More
National Trust joins Berkeley in suit against Postal Service
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has joined the City of Berkeley in a lawsuit against the Postal Service over the sale of the Berkeley Main Post Office. The suit complains that the Postal Service has failed to comply with federal historic preservation laws prior to entering into a contract for sale of the building. The National Trust’s complaint is … Read More
Sold American: An inventory of USPS disposed properties, 2009-2014
The Postal Service has sold over 500 properties over the past five years, but it hasn’t released much information about the disposals. A few weeks ago, however, the Postal Service finally updated its Owned Facilities report, so it’s now possible to learn more about which properties have been sold off. The overall scope of the disposal program has not been … Read More
Historic post office in Richmond VA for sale
The 1937 post office at 1625-1635 Broad Street in Richmond, Virginia, is listed on the USPS-CBRE Properties for Sale website. The listing says the Postal Service wants to have the property under contract this month, with a closing in February of 2015, at which time the Postal Service will relocate to a new facility. According to the USPS Leased Properties list, … Read More
Trouble in the air: USPS may sell rights over Old Chelsea post office
Late last year, the Postal Service announced that it would not proceed with its controversial plan to sell the Old Chelsea post office at 217 West 18th Street in Manhattan. Now the Postal Service has decided it wants to sell the air rights above the historic building. According to a letter to the New York State Office of Parks, Recreations … Read More
CBRE arranges sale of Bronx GPO to one of its clients
The New York Daily News is reporting that the Postal Service has sold the Bronx General Post Office to Youngwoo & Associates. Back in February, The Real Deal had reported that Youngwoo was proposing to use the site to build a marketplace in the vein of the company’s unsuccessful plan for the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx. The founder and … Read More
Bronx GPO sold, no details yet
The Bronx General Post Office has been sold. There’s no word yet on who the buyer is or what the plans for the building are, but the post office was definitely sold two weeks ago. On the USPS-CBRE website, the listing says simply, "Sold." The Postal Service has not made an official announcement about the sale, and it is apparently … Read More
Union, Activists and Officials Fight Sale of Landmark Bronx Post Office
DNAInfo: "Bronx officials, activists and union representatives are calling on the United States Postal Service to immediately halt its sale of the Bronx General Post Office – a plan they have contested in the past. "The 170,000-square-foot building on East 149th Street and the Grand Concourse, filled with murals from the 1930s, was listed on the “USPS Properties for Sales” website, run … Read More
Sale of historic Bronx Post Office moves forward; bids due Jan. 15
The Postal Service is moving forward on the sale of the historic Bronx General Post Office at 558 Grand Concourse in New York City. The property is listed on the USPS-CBRE Properties for Sale website, where a new Call-for-Offers announcement says interested parties should submit their bids by 5:00 p.m. on January 15. (The listing is here.) The announcement doesn’t … Read More
Staplizing the Post Office: A dozen reasons to just say no
Back in November, the Postal Service quietly announced that it was setting up postal counters in a couple of Staples stores in San Jose and South San Francisco. The website Going Postal broke the Staples story a few days later with its report about a pilot program that included 82 Staples stores in areas around San Francisco, San Diego, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and west of Boston. … Read More
The corporatization of the Postal Service: Post office closures, suspensions, relocations, and reductions in 2013
One of the most persistent refrains in the debate about the Postal Service is that it needs to act more like a business. That means different things to different people, but for many, the model for where the Postal Service needs to go is to be found in Europe. In the EU countries, where the process of liberalization has been … Read More
The plot thickens: An OIG solicitation, the Palmer Square Post Office, and the CBRE-LCOR connection
There were a couple of interesting developments this week in the story about how the Postal Service and its real estate broker CBRE are handling post office lease deals and the sales of postal properties. On Christmas Day, the USPS Office of Inspector General posted a solicitation notice looking for a supplier to do an analysis of the fair market value … Read More