Spokane7
65°
August 15, 2011 in City
Postal Service to move out of historic Spokane building
The U.S. Post Office will cease their services in the downtown branch on Riverside and Howard by mid-2012.
(Full-size photo)
The U.S. Postal Service plans to move out of its historic Riverside Avenue post office in downtown Spokane to cut costs, Spokane Postmaster Karen Fairlee said today.
“We’re just in the beginning of a two- or three-part process,” she said. “Like any other business that needs more money to keep operating, we need to show we’re able to cut costs.”
She said she doesn’t know where the office will relocate, but it will remain downtown. USPS administrators haven’t identified a short list of alternate downtown sites, she added.
As the shutdown proceeds, the first phase will be eliminating postal carrier pickups at the downtown facility. About 26 carriers handle mail for 19 routes using the building, which is next to the federal courthouse. The carriers will be moved “before the snow flies” to the Liberty Park Post Office, Fairlee said.
The relocation of the retail operation and maintenance of downtown post office boxes won’t happen until sometime in 2012, Fairlee said.
Built in the early 1900s, the building at the corner of Lincoln and Riverside has been a post office for 102 years.
The postal service uses space on the first floor and a loading dock in the basement. Upstairs is federal courthouse and office space.
One source of cost savings would be reducing the number of post office boxes in a new space, Fairlee said. The old building has 1,600 boxes, including some that are substantial in size. Few people need large boxes, she said. At present only about 1,000 of the boxes are rented.
The Postal Service leases its Riverside office space from the General Services Administration. That rate has not gone up, but it’s not small and can be reduced by relocating elsewhere, Fairlee said.
Fairlee said she doesn’t know what the GSA will do with the space the Postal Service vacates. “I’m not sure they even know what our plans are yet,” she said.
The post office building has recently undergone $2.3 million worth of upgrades funded by the 2009 stimulus act.
The Postal Service has announced the agency is considering a number of steps to save money, including reducing delivery to five days per week and closing more than 3,000 branches nationwide.
The choice of ending Saturday delivery can only be approved by Congress, and so far no consensus has developed to take that step.
Among offices that could be closed to cut costs are the Parkwater, Hillyard and Dishman stations in Spokane.
Fairlee said it’s not a sure thing that those three offices will be closed, as the USPS needs to look at how residents in those neighborhoods would be affected.
Garco awarded $35.8 million Joint Base Lewis-McChord contract 
polistra on August 15 at 2:02 p.m.
Snow’s gonna fly early this year. La Nina’s baaaaack!
Bet they won’t make it.
DickAdams on August 15 at 2:05 p.m.
I guess the taxpayer stimulus money was spent on a shovel ready project. A grave yard.
de3 on August 15 at 2:23 p.m.
$2.3 million thrown away? Wow. No wonder we are bankrupt.
Squid on August 15 at 2:24 p.m.
$2.3 Million in upgrades from stimulus money, moving to a new location, a vacant building, lined with marble and granite downtown, relocating employees, relocating the entire contents of the post office…. The building was bought and paid for many many years ago. Now they will have to buy another building and property?
How is this going to reduce costs? Once again, I’m confused.
Makes sense if you don’t think about it.
mikeln on August 15 at 2:53 p.m.
You would think the GSA would reduce the rent after spending 2.3 million for a customer that has been there for 102 years, seems that even at a reduced rent they could more then recoup thier outlay in the next 102 years.
MrNatural on August 15 at 3:16 p.m.
Sad day…A venerated institution is being rendered by a vulnerable technology
cryssT on August 15 at 3:49 p.m.
The rest of the building is Federal Courthouse so plan on the Post Office part of becoming more Federal Courthouse.
The_Seer on August 15 at 3:51 p.m.
What’s this thing they call mail?
MrNatural on August 15 at 4:07 p.m.
Mail!?!…why that’s the pile of dead trees that’s turned into credit card applications, auto insurance deals and mortgage refinancing…oh and NRA decals and political fund rasing pleas.
…or it can be a romantic birthday or Christmas card, a scented keepsake letter from a loved one or a package of goodies from mom…
of interest…what organization could in one day personally visit every residence in this nation (or the majority thereof) and deliver say a life saving vaccine?
william1977 on August 15 at 4:16 p.m.
Good. Glad to hear it. Now they need to sell that building and return money to the treasury for the wasted stimulus upgrades.
That is prime real-estate..let’s get rid of that waste of space and put it to better use.
Finally- the Post Office was great in the early to mid- 1900’s.
Fed ex and UPS should take a run at postal delivery- they are the only one that can make it profitable.
Personally- i can’t wait to have the P.O. die for good. No more credit card offers or junk mail!
DDC on August 15 at 5:07 p.m.
$2.3 million (out of $657 million that flowed into our congressional district) spent on an Albatross. Believe me, you don’t want to know where the rest went.
Brett on August 16 at 8:25 a.m.
Guys, the renovation money is not just being thrown away! It’s just the post office that is vacating; the US Bankruptcy court will still be occupying the upper floors. The whole building is connected with interior corridors to the Foley Federal Building next door so the government is not just going to abandon the building!
philipgregory on August 16 at 8:32 a.m.
The USPS needs to MOVE OUT completely! And, stop being a burden to taxpayers and let commercial services take over. No corporation could be as poorly run.
lewis8457 on August 16 at 8:27 p.m.
GSA is in that building too they are the ones that contract out all government services the post office only has the first floor north to restroom and the basement area they might take up maybe 60% 1st floor and 40% basement that is it.
i was the janitor boss for a few years there, beautiful wood floor in the 1st floor working area but very antiquated in its productions systems, the postal cops had a room above it they could watch to see if any carriers stole anything.
all the free samples that are undeliverable go into a cart transported through federal building via second floor into the basement and just thrown out free coffee, tea, ink pens you name it. Huge cart every week.
they have rooms full of nothing but old dated equipment no longer used just sitting there collecting dust instead of renting the space out. If you have never been go to the 3rd or 4th floor cant remember but there are marble floors and a beautiful staircase are for sitting.
Wiggentree_Copyright on August 20 at 2:37 a.m.
How sad. I remember my daily walk downtown on Riverside, past the Catholic diocese and the clock tower to pick up my mail and run other errands - the wind blowing the fall leaves - catching them in the corners of old buildings and lifting them skyward in tiny tornados. Whatever would I do without my memories? (Old secretaries never die. They simply lose their minds. ; - )