By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
FINANCIAL DISTRICT — Following months of speculation that the Peck Slip Post Office would close, the United States Postal Service has put the 1 Peck Slip building in which it is housed on the market.
“We just can’t keep going the way we’re going,” said Darleen Reid, a spokeswoman for the USPS, adding that unless USPS makes major changes in its operations, it will lose $238 billion by 2020.
Reid hopes that whoever buys 1 Peck Slip will keep the post office operating in the four-story, 70,800-square-foot building — which sits between Pearl and Water streets in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge — but she said that is not a condition for a deal.
“If [we] get an offer that’s too good to refuse…,” Reid trailed off.
If the future buyer does not want to keep the post office open, the USPS will study whether the larger post office at 90 Church Street could absorb the Peck Slip customers, Reid said.
Paul Hovitz, a Seaport resident and Community Board 1 member who has advocated for the Peck Slip Post Office, said closing it would be unacceptable. He said the Church Street branch is too far a walk for the many seniors who live in Southbridge Towers.
“I’m also concerned that we will eventually end up with some colossus on that site…that would block views and take up air and space,” Hovitz said.
The building is in the South Street Seaport Historic District, so the city Landmarks Preservation Commission would have to approve any new designs; something prospective developers would have to consider.
While Hovitz hopes to keep the Peck Slip Post Office open, he also suggested that the space could make a good school, perhaps as part of a future development project.
Elizabeth Rose, a portfolio planning director with the Dept. of Education, did not dismiss the idea when Hovitz raised it at a meeting of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s School Overcrowding Task Force last week.
“I discussed that with the [School Construction Authority] this morning and we will look at it,” Rose said at the meeting.
Jones Lang LaSalle, the real estate firm handling the sale for USPS, released a request for qualifications earlier this month. Prospective buyers can submit proposals until May 10.
