U.S. Postal Service to move downtown operations to east Redmond

Published 1:03 pm Wednesday, November 30, 2011

U.S. Postal Service (USPS) officials said they have stopped their search for a new post office location in downtown Redmond for the moment.

Retail services as well as the letter carriers and delivery and distribution center at the current downtown location at 16135 NE 85th St. will move to 7241 185th Ave. N.E. in east Redmond.

In earlier reports, it was stated that only letter carriers and delivery and distribution would move to this location, but Ernie Swanson, spokesperson for USPS’s Seattle district said USPS is leaning toward moving everything to east Redmond.

“It’s not a done deal, but it seems to be the direction we’re looking at right now,” he said.

Swanson said USPS’s lease at its current location downtown is up at the end of May 2012, so they have about six months to finalize everything.

“It could go back the other way, I suppose,” he said. “It just sort of depends.”

USPS was previously looking at a location at 8215 160th Ave. N.E. for its retail services, which include  package sending, certified mail, money orders, post office boxes and stamp purchasing, but the deal fell through.

Nelson Legacy Group is the property leasing and development company that owns the property and had been working with USPS regarding the location. Leasing manager Michael Nelson said if things do change and the space remains available, his firm is willing to work with USPS again.