BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC | No one knows the ultimate fate of a treasured local post office — but at least the concerned parties were sent two letters of intent.
The sale of the air rights and a portion of historic Old Chelsea Station (217 W. 18th St. btw 7th & 8th Aves.) is moving forward as the United States Postal Services (USPS) has put it up for bid, according to its spokesperson.
Connie Chirichello, USPS Corporate Communications representative for New York City and Long Island, said in an April 15 email to Chelsea Now that the air rights are on the market and it is in the preliminary stage — to start the process and determine actual, interested buyers for a discussion to start. Parties have until the middle of May to submit their interest in this first round, she said.
The request for proposals, or RFP, was expected to begin in January but was delayed.
The community and elected officials — who fought hard to keep the post office open in 2013 — were initially caught off guard about the sale, which was announced late last year. The USPS ultimately sent a representative to Community Board 4’s (CB4) monthly meeting in January.
At that meeting, Gregory C. Lackey, USPS’ realty asset manager for the Northeast, said the public comment period would be extended — something many pushed for — and it was.
Lackey said that about 5,000 to 6,000 feet of the Old Chelsea Station would be used for a proposed residential building, which will be eight stories and 83 feet above the existing deck. In a March 4 letter to CB4 and elected officials, the USPS stated that the gross floor area is approximately 59, 272 sq. ft. with each floor containing up to 7,409 sq. ft.
It also stated that it “will keep the community and elected officials informed of any substantial changes to the plans for Old Chelsea.”
“I appreciate that the USPS has taken the time to hear the community concerns with their plans for the Old Chelsea Station,” U.S. Representative Jerrold Nadler said in an email statement to Chelsea Now. “As the RFP moves forward, I hope the USPS continues to provide the community meaningful input to ensure any changes preserve both the neighborhood’s character and the historic features of the building.”
However, in a March 18 letter from the postal service to the Advisory Council of Historic Preservation (ACHP), it stated it “intends to initiate a new Section 106 review process for a modified undertaking.”
The “modified undertaking,” according to a spokesperson from Nadler’s office, indicates that the USPS has changed its timeline.
Chirichello said the USPS did the modification to allow for a more comprehensive review of the undertaking by the community.
“When we have development plans from a successful bidder that the postal service considers potentially viable, then the postal service can determine the full scope of the undertaking and its potential effect on historic properties. Then the postal service can present a more complete, more detailed, proposal to the community for input,” said Chirichello in an April 16 email.
Under the National Historic Preservation Act, the USPS must evaluate whether a proposed project — such as the sale of air rights and a portion of the building — would have an adverse effect on a historic property, such as the Old Chelsea Station, which is a National Register listed building.
In its assessment for the first Section 106 process, the USPS found there would be no adverse effect. The State Historic Preservation Office did not agree and stated in a Sept. 17, 2014 letter that the “proposal will have an adverse effect.”
The matter was then turned over to the ACHP to make an evaluation. The ACHP found “the USPS finding of no adverse effect is based on an insufficient assessment…is not supported by the covenant as presently written,” it wrote in a Dec. 5, 2014 letter to the postal service.
“[The sale] is something that the neighborhood is very concerned about,” said Lesley Doyel, co-president of Save Chelsea, in an April 10 phone interview.
Referencing the March 4 letter, Doyel noted that while the USPS plans to maintain operations open during construction, it has “a contingency plan to seek temporary space in another location within the immediate neighborhood if necessary.”
“We need a post office — we don’t need any more luxury housing,” she said.
Doyel said that the postal service has been more responsive, but they were “forced to be more transparent” and “it’s all very carefully worded.” The sale is affecting the neighborhood in a big way, she said, and pointed out that what is happening in Chelsea is part of a wider nationwide problem.
U.S. Representative Barbara Lee, from California, introduced legislation in March that stated “the United States Postal Service may not close, consolidate, or sell any historic postal facility without prior congressional approval, and for other purposes.”
It feels, noted Doyel, as if an important neighborhood institution is in jeopardy.
