By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — The city is pondering the possibility of converting a post office in lower Manhattan into a 450-seat elementary school.
“It's a great opportunity,” said Kenrick Ou, director of real estate services for the School Construction Authority. “This is a priority we are pursuing.”
The United States Postal Service put the four-story building at 1 Peck Slip on the market earlier this year.
School construction officials have yet to tour the 70,800-square-foot building, but Ou said he believes it could accommodate both a 450-seat school and a small retail post office on the ground floor, which is important to the community.
The Construction Authority president, Sharon Greenberger wrote a letter Thursday confirming the city’s interest in the post office site.
The key step now is convincing the Postal Service not to put the building out for public bidding, but rather to set it aside for the city to buy.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said he has had several conversations with Sen. Chuck Schumer about a school on the site, but the Postal Service has not yet made a decision.
“It would be a win-win for our community,” Silver said at a meeting of his School Overcrowding Task Force on Friday afternoon.
If the government approvals fall into place, it would still take up to a year to design the space and at least a year for construction, Ou said. The building, which is between Pearl and Water Streets, has available air rights and could be expanded.
The School Construction Authority is also looking at several alternative school sites in lower Manhattan in case the Peck Slip plan falls through or if it's determined that additional space is needed. The Authority is in the final stages of studying 335 Broadway, an office building at the corner of Worth Street where several floors could be leased, Ou said.
