Airport Mail Hub Planned Final Decision Not Till February, But Land For Huge Distribution Center Is Approved

The U.S. Postal Service likely will build a massive new distribution center at Spokane International Airport.

Although the Postal Service’s Board of Governors won’t vote on the matter until late February, the Spokane Airport Board on Wednesday approved a 20-year lease for 31 acres in the airport business park.

“We’re confident and optimistic it’s going to happen,” said Al DeSarro, Postal Service spokesman in Denver.

If approved, the center would open in fall 1999, DeSarro said.

That would free up the Postal Service to close its cramped distribution center on East Trent Avenue and sell the building and 15 acres. Officials for neighboring Gonzaga University have said they’d like to buy that land to expand the campus.

The distribution center handles twice as much mail as it did when it was built in 1961.

“We are bursting at the seams,” said LeRoy Nielsen, USPS manager of field maintenance operations in Spokane.

DeSarro said the location for the proposed new center was selected to provide easy access to planes, as well as postal trucks using Interstate 90 and U.S. Highway 2.

Postal Service plans call for a building that would cover 360,000 square feet, or 8.26 acres.

How big is that?

As big as 173 typical new houses.

Three times larger than Wal-Mart in the Spokane Valley.

Half again as large as the Boeing Co. plant on the West Plains.

About the same size as the Kingdome in Seattle.

DeSarro said the Postal Service won’t disclose the estimated cost of the new center until the project is approved.

“It’s safe to say it’s going to be over $10 million,” he said.

The lease for the land, which can be extended to 55 years, will cost $67,000 a year. The airport board agreed to re-route utilities that will be needed for the project, build a new road and pave two existing roads.

Board member Phil Harris, a county commissioner, questioned whether the cost of the improvements is justified by the rent the Postal Service will pay.

“When you get into road construction, you could eat up the first 10 years of the lease pretty quickly,” he said.

Airport staff members predict the distribution center would spur other development in the business park.

The airport has done little to improve roads and utilities inside the park since the early 1960s, said John Morrison, chief executive officer. Many of the improvements will be necessary regardless of whether the Postal Service moves in, he said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Map of area

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Service area The U.S. Postal Service distribution center in Spokane serves northeastern Washington and northwestern Idaho. The center’s 450 employees process an average of 2 million parcels a day, mailed to or from ZIP codes that begin with 835, 838, 990, 991 or 992.