By Cathy Ingalls
Albany Democrat-Herald | Posted: Wednesday, April 1, 2009 12:00 am
The U.S. Postal Service has paid $10,000 a month for years to store old equipment in a building it leases on Ferry Street in Albany.
Initially, carriers worked out of the building at 2995 Ferry St. S.W. after advanced sorting machines were installed around 2000. Soon after, however, the entire operation closed down.
Since then, the building has been used only for storage, said Ron Anderson, the customer relations coordinator in charge of the Portland Postal District. He is based in Salem.
Meanwhile, the cost of a 1 ounce, first-class stamp goes from 42 cents to 44 cents on May 11.
"I asked our facilities department if this was an unusual situation, and they said it is very unusual," he said. "Out of the almost 500 properties the postal service either leases or owns throughout the state of Oregon, this is the only one that is not currently in active use."
In 2000, postal operations in Albany needed to expand and the downtown post office was too small to do that, said Postmaster Marcee Teeters. So, shortly after the 8,912-square-foot building on Ferry was completed in 1999, most of the work done downtown was moved there. The main post office, built in 1963, was then used mainly for retail operations and to house post office boxes.
The operation on Ferry closed after the postal service installed even newer mail sorting machinery in Salem. That equipment had a greater capacity to perform more functions faster and more efficiently, Anderson said.
Albany's outgoing mail goes to Salem for postmarking and sorting.
Although the post office no longer actively uses the Ferry Street building, Teeters said, the service has an agreement with the building's owner in Portland to lease the site for 20 years. The property owner built the structure specifically for use by the postal service, Anderson said.
It was not until June 2008, however, that the service attempted to find a tenant to sublease the property, said Dan Herbst of Coldwell Banker Valley Brokers in Albany.
"Just recently, we found a tenant, a state agency, that was serious about the property but the postal service backed out just before signing the papers," he said.
The postal service is reconsidering what to do with the building, Anderson said.
"We're going through a re-evaluation of our real estate holdings everywhere, including Albany and Salem," he said. "We aren't now looking to enter into an agreement with anyone in Albany. We may want to reutilize the building for postal purposes."
A decision will not be made until around the first of May, Anderson said.
The building sits on 1.56 acres and has 78 striped parking spaces.
If the service decides not to use the Ferry Street site, the agency will again try to sublet it.
It would be a good location for a manufacturer or a business making deliveries, Teeter said.