WESTPORT PATCH
February 12, 2010

Possible Westport Post Office Relocation ‘In Proximity of Downtown’

The deadline to submit potential locations is March 1.

By Andrew Brophy

The broker soliciting space to which the Westport Post Office might relocate reports a good amount of interest from potential landlords as the March 1 deadline to submit a location looms.

“We’ve gotten a number of responses and a number of sites submitted already. We’re happy with the responses, we’re happy with the sites,” Peter Yeskey of Saugatuck Commercial Real Estate LLC said last week.

Yeskey declined to state the number of responses he’s received or their locations, but said they are “within proximity of downtown.”

Westport First Selectman Gordon Joseloff, Dick Lowenstein, a Westport Representative Town Meeting member, and Bob LeRose, president of the Westport Downtown Merchants Association, have said they want the post office to relocate downtown so potential shoppers continue to come into the business district.

Yeskey said U.S. Postal Service officials would be presented with all of the potential locations received by Saugatuck Commercial Real Estate LLC. The deadline to submit a potential location is March 1.

The USPS wants 2,000 net interior square feet of space and parking spaces for at least 15 vehicles. The USPS also wants potential landlords to state the cost of a 10-year term, with two five-year renewal option terms, according to an advertisement recently published in a local newspaper.

The USPS’ solicitation of space is much more visible, at this point, than its plan to sell its 154 Post Road East building, which was most recently appraised at $3.65 million on tax records.

Maureen Marion, a USPS spokeswoman, and Joseloff had thought signs advertising that the building is for sale would be set up outside the post office building more than a month ago, but no such sign had appeared as of Friday. The potential sale of the post office building also is not listed on the multiple listing service used by real estate agents. Marion said last week that the post office was required to get competitive bids but added that people interested in purchasing the property already knew it was for sale.

“By postal regulations, they’d need to get a competitive bid. They’re going to want more than one,” she said. Marion couldn’t say whether the post office building was officially on the market yet because she didn’t know the name of an agent or a contact for interested parties to call.

Real estate agents said the Westport Post Office building wasn’t officially on the market yet and that the USPS would have to publicly announce that the building is for sale and identify who interested parties could contact to submit a bid.

Tommy Febbraio, owner and managing director at Coldwell Banker Commercial (Febbraio Group), said the post office building was a tough sell for retail space because it was elevated and downtown Westport had so much commercial space available. Febbraio said the USPS would get offers, but he added that interested parties likely would want a discount due to the topography of the site, the lack of parking spaces and the availability of other commercial space in downtown Westport.

Marion said the potential sale of the Westport Post Office building drove the process – not the availability of locations that the postal service could move to.

“The intent of the postal service at this juncture is, No.1, to see if we can get a viable purchase offer for the sale of the Westport Post Office,” she said. “Our experience is it will be so much easier for us to find a space…The big ticket item is whether we can make the sale of the building happen.”

Joseloff said several weeks ago that the town was interested in partnering with a developer to try to purchase the property and, if that public/private partnership took ownership of the site, that the use would be geared toward the public.

The USPS wants to sell its one-story building, built in 1935, due to financial problems, a lack of parking spaces and excess space that resulted when mail was sorted in Norwalk instead of Westport.

The Westport Post Office building at 154 Post Road East covers 4,960 square feet on the first floor, includes a 4,580-square-foot basement, and sits on 0.39 acre, according to tax records.