Post office finds a temporary home at Gateway Plaza

Post Office will be next to Toni and Guy
in Gateway Plaza
Photo by Steven H. Robinson

By Diane Hettrick

The North City Post Office, which has to vacate its building at 15th NE and NE 175th by the end of the month, has signed a lease for space at Gateway Plaza in Shoreline, 18336 Aurora Ave N, Ste 105.

Gateway Plaza is located on the east side of Aurora at NE 185th and contains Bartells, BECU, and several restaurants.

Midvale Ave N runs through the middle of the Plaza. There are access points to Midvale from N 185th, from N 175th in front of City Hall and from several points on Aurora.

The post office will be in a large space at the inside corner of the main building, next to Toni and Guy hair salon and cosmetology school.

All the services currently available at the North City Station will be available at the new location, including counter service and post office boxes.

The lease was effective December 12, 2017 and will be re-evaluated in six to 12 months.

They anticipate December 29 will be the last day of operation at the current North City Station location. 

At the public meeting, customer service managers asserted that they could move the entire operation in one day if they needed to.

The space is intended as a temporary location while the USPS real estate division continues to actively search for a long term solution as close as possible to the current North City location.

Looking south from 185th
Midvale Ave N goes through the Gateway Plaza
The Interurban Trail is in the foreground
Photo by Steven H. Robinson

USPS has already leased the Ballinger Portal site on Ballinger Way from the City of Shoreline to use for parking their delivery vans.

Employees will be able to park in the lot behind the Gateway building.

Midvale Ave N is in the foreground
Photo by Steven H. Robinson

USPS has selected a different site for the mail carriers to work out of, but are not ready to announce it because the lease has not been finalized.

USPS lost the North City location when the new owner of the land put it up for sale. The federal government owned the building but only had a lease on the land.

The lease was renegotiated several times, but the new buyer invoked a clause to end the current lease so they could begin construction of an apartment building on the site.