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Capitol Hill post office working out new lease to stay on Broadway

Last July there was a list of some 3,700 post offices that would close or consolidate. The Broadway branch was not on the list and has not been added, according to officials. But they do have a lease to work out.

Mark Rozgay, manager of the trust that owns the land at Broadway and Denny where the post office is located, tells us he is in the process of negotiating a new 10-year lease with USPS but that nothing is final. Meanwhile, postal officials say there is no plan to shutter the Broadway office or consolidate it at another location. “We don’t have any concrete plans to close or consolidate the Broadway facility,” said USPS spokesperson for Washington state Ernie Swanson.

“For many years we’ve been trying to find another location,” Swanson said. “It’s small, old, there’s no customer parking, no employee parking, and we have to rent space offsite to park the trucks. We just haven’t been able to find a replacement. It’s tough to find space in the Broadway area. That’s not to say something might not change, but there are no plans to close or consolidate.”

If this all sounds familiar, the plans for upgrading the Broadway post office building have been in the air for years — here’s our report on the situation from May 2009.

However it works out, we’re likely to finally have something new to report by 2013. The current lease runs out later this year.


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17 Comments
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JayH
12 years ago

Darn. The Post Office needs to move for all the reasons that Swanson states. I’ve been walking in the street for 30 yeas because the mail trucks and customers park on the sidewalk. Let’s all find them a better location.

Anon
12 years ago

Would be better somewhere with at least a few spots for people running in for a minute.

hybridtoaster
12 years ago

The last thing Broadway needs is a place to store a bunch of USPS trucks, unless it’s underground. Do that many customers actually drive there? I guess I underestimate how lazy some people are. The place is well within quick walking distance from all the high density residential in the neighborhood.

10 years seems like an awful long lease to sign if they don’t like where they are. Maybe they could move into a mixed-used place that isn’t yet under construction, like right across the street at the Sound Transit dig site.

hybridtoaster
12 years ago

If you’re looking for easy nearby parking, there’s a little pay lot (recently converted) behind Dick’s drive-in and the Heights on Capitol Hill apartments. It shares an alleyway with the post office.

seattle Bear
12 years ago

The only reason I ever need to go into the post office is to mail boxes. So sometimes parking would be nice :-)

jeff
jeff
12 years ago

I can’t believe that building will survive another decade. Where is the density going to come from if not across the street from the light rail station?

Chris
12 years ago

If they knew their lease was up, why wasnt this considered as part of the station being built across the street?!?!?

motab
motab
12 years ago

Now I’m confused. Because one of the postal clerks told me that they were definitely closing at the end of the year when their lease ran out. My PO box comes up for renewal in May so I was planning on looking elsewhere. I would like to think that the USPS spokesperson would be the best source of information, but it wouldn’t be the first time an official said one thing publicly while something very different was going on in the background. (Remember the Sonics???)

Tom
Tom
12 years ago

I mail a lot of stuff.

Kevin McDonald
Kevin McDonald
12 years ago

If there was ever a perfect TOD site – this is it! Right across from the light rail station and at the northern terminus (interim hopefully) of the First Hill streetecar. Perhaps the Post Office can do something short-term while their site gets redeveloped, then move back in – like US Bank did and Bank of America is currently doing.

Ernest Tee Bass
Ernest Tee Bass
12 years ago

I’m in and out of several post offices in Seattle and around the U.S. pretty often and far and away, the Cap Hill P.O. needs a remodel the most. I can’t recall any problems at this location other than the lines are long and they could use an automated shipping center also.

calhoun
calhoun
12 years ago

Great suggestion. Best case scenario would be a classy mixed-use re-development including the Post Office site and the businesses between it and Dick’s, with the Post Office moving back in to the retail part.

That Post Office is very sketchy and dysfunctional. Gentrify it!

dboy
12 years ago

USPS spokesperson Ernie Swanson should be asked why the postal service puts out such a dirty and unkempt face on a major neighborhoood thoroughfare. Sure, the Cap Hill PO isn’t the most beautiful of buildings. But it should be the postal service’s responsibility at least to keep the place clean and tidy. The storefront windows are always filthy. The venetian blinds are a tangled mess. Regardless of building’s physical condition, why isn’t there any pride demonstrated by the postal service in keeping the facility inviting?

calhoun
calhoun
12 years ago

There’s a simple answer….they are un-fireable government employees, and they don’t give a damn.

what_now
12 years ago

Or, they’re under staffed and over worked. But it’s funnier to say they’re lazy, I guess?

calhoun
calhoun
12 years ago

I didn’t use the word “lazy”. The counter staff are great and do the best they can….especially the middle-aged guy with glasses, who is very friendly and obviously takes pride in his job. Government employees are often indifferent, but there are exceptions, and he is definitely one of them.

Eric
Eric
12 years ago

I can generally find a spot to park those few times that I drive there, generally on the way to or from somewhere else.