DOWNTOWN AUSTIN
Downtown post office gets another new address
Revised plan will put new station at East Ninth and Red River streets.
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By Shonda Novak
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, November 08, 2007
The U.S. Postal Service is rerouting plans for its downtown Austin post office to a new address that could mean the new facility will open much sooner than under a previous plan.
The Postal Service is expected to publish public notices today announcing that it plans the new station at the southwest corner of East Ninth and Red River streets, Mayor Will Wynn said. The site, about one-fourth of a block, is now used for parking.
Novare Group Inc. and Andrews Urban LLC planned to incorporate a new post office in the ground floor of a condo high-rise they plan at West Sixth and Nueces streets. Last year, they bought the existing post office site for another condo tower that would follow.
Taylor Andrews, president of Andrews Urban, said the developers will still build the new post office at the Red River site. The Postal Service owns that land.
Andrews said the Postal Service decided the new site was a better location.
Wynn said the Postal Service had been considering other alternatives all along.
"In no way do I consider this bad news or a setback," Wynn said. "In fact, as we talked through this, I believe this is an even better solution for all parties involved."
As a stand-alone project, the new post office will be built sooner, and the change frees Novare to add additional ground-floor retail to its project, bringing more tax dollars for the city.
"There's no net loss, and there's a dramatic net gain of private sector tax base downtown," Wynn said.
Another plus, he said, is that the public will be able to use post office parking afterhours in an area with a lot of clubs where it's sorely needed.
The new site also is in the Capitol view corridor, meaning no high-rise development would be allowed.
Stephen Seewoester, a spokesman for the Postal Service, said the Red River location could open in about 18 months.
Seewoester said more information will be available at a public meeting Nov. 16.
Andrews said moving the post office will involve only minor changes to plans for the first condo tower.
That project, on which Novare expects to break ground in late December or early January, will now have more than 20,000 square feet of retail space below 436 condos.
The second tower that Novare plans at the current postal site is to have 550 condos, 150 hotel rooms and ground-floor retail.
The post office was widely criticized for the stark design of the current station.
But Wynn said the Postal Service plans a well-designed new project with trees shading a wide, pedestrian-oriented sidewalk and above- and below-ground parking.
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