Showing posts with label post office. Show all posts
Showing posts with label post office. Show all posts

Post office finds a temporary home at Gateway Plaza

Friday, December 15, 2017

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.



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USPS to lease Brightwater portal site for parking

Sunday, November 26, 2017

USPS Parcel 1 would be used on a temporary basis to park post office vans.
Land is owned by City of Shoreline


USPS, which lost its property lease for the North City Post Office, will be leasing the Brightwater portal site in the Ballinger business district from the City of Shoreline.

The site, at 20031 Ballinger Way NE, is currently unused, and would be used to park post office vans.

The deal is on the Consent Agenda for approval by the Shoreline City Council at Monday's meeting.

USPS has not announced where it will move its operations but several properties were named as being under consideration.

The lease would be temporary as the USPS is still looking for a permanent location to house both operations and parking.



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U.S. Postal Service is looking to buy or lease property for new post office

Saturday, October 28, 2017

Postal Service is looking to purchase or lease
land to house the North City Post Office
Photo by Steven H. Robinson
The U.S. Postal Service is losing the lease for the North City Post Office at NE 175th and 15th NE in Shoreline.

Do you own property or know someone who owns property they might like to sell or lease to the Feds?

According to Postal Service Real Estate Specialist Greg Shelton, here's what they are looking for:

Location (as close as possible to the current location at NE 175th and 15th NE, ideally less than a 1 mile)

Option1: Retail and Carriers in one building known as a one for one
  • Building size: 19,648 Gross SF or about 16,833 Net SF
  • Parking: 153 Parking (21 Customer, 76 Employee and 56 Carriers)
  • Land Size: 110,000 SF
  • Docks: One 30” High and one 50” high minimums
Option 2: Retail only (Has the PO BOX and service counter)
  • Building size: 4,329 Gross SF or about 3,684 Net SF
  • Parking: 25 Parking (20 Customer and 5 Employee)
  • Land Size: 42,000 SF
  • Docks: One 30” High
Option 3: Carrier Building only (Can be a warehouse more industrial)
  • Building size: 15,785 Gross SF or about 13,770 Net SF
  • Parking: 131 Parking (2 Customer, 73 Employee and 56 Carriers)
  • Land Size: 95,000 SF
  • Docks: One 30” High and one 50” high minimums

Ideally, they would prefer an existing building. If someone is building a building that meets their needs, they will consider this as well.

Also, they would consider purchasing property to build a facility.

Contact Bryan Hester with CBRE regarding all properties.

Bryan Hester / Vice President CBRE
1420 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1700, Seattle, WA 98101 
Email                  



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North City Post Office: Good News - Bad News

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Current post offices. North City, in the center of the map
will be closed December 31, 2017


By Diane Hettrick

Greg Shelton, from the U.S. Postal Service Real Estate division in Colorado, held a meeting on Monday evening at Shoreline City Hall to inform patrons of the plans for the North City Post Office functions.

As you may recall, the North City Post Office is on land the Federal postal service leased from a private owner. The private owner sold the land to new owners, who are developing the property and building an apartment building on the site. The area is zoned Commercial Business. (see previous article)

The Good News:
  • No employee will lose their job. The work still needs to be done - it will just be done in a different location. They will probably be inconvenienced during the process and parking may be a challenge.
  • Postal box holders will be able to keep their addresses and get their mail.
  • Residential customers will not notice any difference in mail delivery.
  • They have the capability to move the entire North City operation in one day and be up and running the next.
The Bad News:
  • They have to vacate the current premises at NE 175th and 15th NE in North City on December 31, 2017.
  • They have no prospects for a new site.
  • They absolutely cannot stay past December 31. The building will be demolished right after the first of the year.
  • They cannot lease space in the new building. They asked. 
They need space for both retail operations and carriers. Retail refers to the postal boxes and the counter. "Carriers" refers to the employees who sort and deliver the mail and their vehicles.

They would need 19,648 sq ft for everything, with parking for customers, employees, and the carrier vans. Retail alone would be 4,329 sq ft with parking for about 25. Carrier only would be 15,785 sq ft with parking for about 125.

There are a lot of ideas under consideration.
  • Move to one or two temporary locations while continuing to search for a permanent location.
  • Lease some space for the postal boxes to sit in large units like those used in apartment buildings.
  • Lease some space to set up a drive-through for blue collection bins.
  • Direct people to the existing blue bins around the city.
  • Direct people to other post offices to drop off their mail.
They are open to leasing or buying property. They are pretty desperate for ideas and welcome input from the community. If you know of possible locations, mail them to:
U.S. Postal Service
Attn: Greg Shelton - Shoreline
200 E. Kentucky Ave
Denver CO 80209-9950
Monday is a start of a 30 day comment period, which would go to the same address.

Shelton is working with CBRE and went out looking at property on Monday. Some possibilities - the former Office Depot in Mountlake Terrace just off Ballinger Way. There is some empty space in Ballinger Village. Gateway Plaza has a large available space previously occupied by a liquor store and a handbag store; however the parking is already full there. Parkwood Plaza, 15200 Aurora, has space but it's very close to the Bitter Lake post office. The current police station on 185th is a real possibility, but it won't be available until May. 

Aurora Square was on the list but crossed off because Sears has leased the space. However, there are other spaces in that complex and a lot of parking and loading docks.

Shelton said that perhaps the North (Brugger's Bog) maintenance yard could be used to park carriers.

Other ideas that were rejected:
  • No, you can't use the church property on 15th NE. North City Water District is in full swing planning for that site.
  • You might be able to negotiate with the water district for use of their old maintenance facility but it's too small for them, so would not be big enough for the post office.
  • Fircrest belongs the the state. DSHS has their own ideas for the property.
  • The open land by the Blue Bridges is already in the permitting process.

Shelton seemed unaware that there was another city in the 98155 zip code and had not contacted the City of Lake Forest Park, but said he would. 

They will send notices to Shoreline Area News for publication to let people know where to pick up their mail.

Members of the audience had a variety of concerns. A business owner said he had to have uninterrupted access to his postal box. An employee of the state public health lab next to Fircrest was concerned about mailing and receiving their samples for newborn testing. A snowbird said she was leaving town in December and having the post office hold her mail until April. "How will I know where to pick it up?" (I gave her my card).

Rep. Pramila Jayapal's representative was there to see if there was anything her office could do to help. Shoreline City Manager Debbie Tarry was there.

This looks to be a long process. Watch this space.

Updated 10-25-17 with more Bad News points
Correction: the reference was to the North Maintenance Yard, not the Hamlin Park yard

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Post Office meeting Tuesday

Saturday, October 21, 2017

The U.S. Postal Service is having a meeting for the Shoreline North City Post Office located at 17233 15th Ave, NE Shoreline, WA 98155-9998. 

It will be run by USPS Real Estate Specialist Greg Shelton on Tuesday, October 24, 2017, at 6pm in City of Shoreline Council Chambers, 17500 Midvale Ave N, Shoreline 98133.

Due to loss of leasehold, the Postal Service is now looking to relocate retail and carrier services to a yet-to-be-determined location within Shoreline.

The relocation project will consist of procuring a suitable substitute location, as close as reasonably possible to the existing location. Retail Services will continue at the current site until such time as all necessary preparations are completed at the new location or until December 31, 2017.

U.S. Postal Service representatives will present the proposal for the relocation during the 6pm meeting.

Written comments on the proposal will be accepted until November 23, 2017 and may be submitted to:

                        Greg Shelton, Real Estate Specialist
                        United States Postal Service
                        200 E Kentucky Ave
                        Denver, CO 80209-9950
                           
The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

The Postal Service does not anticipate any service disruptions or irregularities in mail delivery for our customers while we search for a replacement site for the North City Station. 
All personnel will relocate to the new site providing the same level of services that are currently available. The P.O. Boxes would be moved to the new location and any Box holders who opt to give up their Box will receive a refund.

The lease, relocation, and functions of the post office are the responsibility of the United State Postal Service. The City of Shoreline is not part of real estate negotiations for the federal government.

The City's responsibility is to process permits for construction.



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North City Post Office property

Saturday, March 21, 2015



According to Ernie Swanson, spokesperson for the Seattle area USPS, the post office has a lease on the North City Station that expires on June 30, 2016. "We are currently in negotiations for a new lease."

In the meantime, the owners of the land are shopping it around for a major site development, using recent buildings such as the Malmo and Polaris as examples.

Flexible zoning is a selling point:
Zoned CB (Community Business) The current CB zoning allows for up to 60 feet of residential, retail, office or mixed use structure development without any density limitations. The Property is located in a planned action area within the City of Shoreline, which is exempt from the SEPA review process. 
They include a copy of the rezone map for the 185th subarea, showing that the site is in the Commercial Business zone.


updated 8:44pm





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