by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Representatives from the City, General Services Administration and the United States Post Office will gather Friday morning at City Hall to make some initial decisions regarding the fate of the downtown post office, currently located in the old Federal courthouse.
At issue is whether the Postal Service will maintain a presence downtown. Although it’s certainly convenient to have a post office within walking distance of many businesses and governmental agencies, the downtown branch’s biggest issue is what to do about the hundreds of post office boxes in the facility.
Brad Thoburn, the director of intergovernmental relations for the City, said getting the Postal Service to commit to a plan is essential to starting renovations of the old courthouse, which will be incorporated into the new $211 million county courthouse complex.
“Their [the post office] lease is up at the end of the year,” said Thoburn, who played an integral role in obtaining the courthouse for the City in exchange for parking spaces in the Water Street garage. “If they agree to lease space downtown, they can stay in the Federal building until June 30 provided they have agreed to lease space downtown.”
One idea Thoburn said the Postal Service is considering is a contract unit — something similar to a Mail Boxes Etc. — from which they can sell stamps and take in mail. While that may suit downtown’s postal needs, it won’t buy time from the City.
“If they opt for a contract unit, we are not going to do that,” said Thoburn of the City allowing the Postal Service to occupy space in the building beyond the end of this year. “It’s not convenient for us to have that building open for one tenant.”
The Postal Service has a slightly different opinion. According to North and Central Florida spokesperson Joe Breckenridge, the Postal Service and the City have agreed to June 30 as a deadline for vacating the building no matter what option the Postal Service chooses. Breckenridge also said Friday’s meeting will be more informational than anything.
“We’ll provide information for the public and downtown businesses. They can sit in and listen to our options,” said Breckenridge, adding they will consider either going into a contract agreement with an independent post office or establish another “postal operated facility” similar to the one in the building now.
Either way, Breckenridge said, the Postal Service intends to remain downtown in some capacity.
“That would be ideal and and we are working on the assumption we will,” said Breckenridge. He also said the Postal Service would keep downtown P.O. boxes in one centralized location. “That’s an old building and there are probably some people who have had the same P.O. box for 40 years.”
Within the next few months, all of the federal judges and staff will move into the new United States Courthouse at Jacksonville one block east. The City would like to begin construction at the old facility shortly thereafter, but will work with the Postal Service as much as possible in order to avoid having to shut down the downtown branch altogether and divide its services and P.O. boxes between the Kings Road and Main Street in Springfield locations.
“We will not go beyond June 30 because we want to start renovations,” said Thoburn. “We have looked at the calendar and that’s as far as we can go. We have been as accommodating as possible.
“They could shift everything to their Kings Road and Springfield facilities, but those are not convenient to downtown. People want to be able to walk to the post office and not have to hop in their cars.”
Breckenridge said the Postal Service hasn’t established a firm time frame for establishing a new downtown location, but believes the June 30 deadline will loom.
“We have to have time for a build out whether we go with a contract unit or our own facility,” said Breckenridge. “We have to postalize it and that takes time. It will be a tight turn around time even for June. We have to follow legislative rules.”