By JENNIFER EDWARDS
City leaders are hoping to find a way to move the main branch of the St. Augustine Post Office, 99 King St., out of downtown.
They say the relocation would ease traffic congestion along King Street, which is expected to worsen beginning in three years as the city begins its celebrations of the 500th anniversary celebration of Juan Ponce de Leon's landing.
"We're trying to be forward thinking," St. Augustine Mayor Joe Boles said. The building "has outgrown the city's ability to suffer its existence."
"Having something that serves all of St. Johns County located downtown just isn't a good idea," he said.
Boles and several other officials -- including U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Park -- met in the Ponce de Leon Mall on Tuesday to discuss relocating the post office there.
Boles emphasized that the city would still have postal service available downtown, probably in the form of a satellite office or postal contractor.
"For this to work, we're going to need a postal facility downtown," he said.
Officials are proposing that the U.S. Postal Service sell its 17,297-square-foot building to Flagler College and move to the Ponce de Leon Mall.
John Gibson, of mall owners Hull Storey Gibson Companies, said that a move would help the mall by bringing in more traffic and benefit the post office by offering more parking.
"This would be an ideal location ...," he said. "It would encourage new businesses to locate here."
W. Jerry Goddard, manger of the U.S.P.S. Southeast facilities service office, said it would consider a move, but that the move would have either to cost the same as current operations, or cost less.
"The post office lost $1.9 billion for the first half of the year," he said of the U.S. Postal Service. "We lost about $4 billion last year. We can't afford to suffer a loss."
He said the Postal Service probably wouldn't move into space it has to lease, but would consider a newly constructed building on mall grounds.
"If anybody can be creative, we can," Gibson replied.
Mica said that a similar relocation in Deland years ago was "a winner all around."
Using the old building
Flagler College used to own the building but sold it to the postal service.
Now, Flagler College President William Abare Jr. said the college would like to have the property back, so it could raze the building and erect a new academic building for the Communications Department.
Abare said the college had already planned to tear down the "woefully inadequate" building on Cordova Street and rebuild it on the same site, but that it would prefer the King Street property.
The location is convenient to campus and the dorms so students could walk to class, causing zero impact on traffic, he said.
And its architecture "Would be in keeping with what the City would like to see," he said.
The property appraiser's office has assessed the building's market value at about $1.4 million, down from a peak appraisal of $1.8 million, but Abare said the college may be willing to pay the previously assessed value.
"It depends," he said.
Goddard said his office would run some numbers through a cost-benefit analysis program and get back to city officials in about a month.
"We'll be able to tell pretty quick if the numbers will work for you and make us happy, too," he said.
Even if officials can reach a satisfactory deal, the public would have say through six months of public meetings, Goddard said.
About 99 King St.:
* Built in 1966
* 17,297 square feet
* The County Property Appraiser set its market value at $1.4 million, but actual market value could vary.
* Located across from a leased space it also uses for operations. That space used to be an IGA grocery store and would likely not be resold.
Source: St. Johns County Property Appraiser, city officials
Did you know?
Relocating the main branch of the post office isn't a new idea.
Wiley Deck, representative for U.S. Rep. John Mica, said the congressman has been in talks to move it since 2003.
"There wasn't a lot of incentive before" the economic melt down, he said.
"But this economy is encouraging creative solutions," Deck said.
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