The U.S. Postal Service has signed, sealed and delivered on its plan to take a 3,500-square-foot spot at 116 John Street, it was announced earlier this week.
The post office will be moving out of its former location at 1 Peck Slip Station, which is currently being renovated into a school, said officials close to the deal.
The new, full-service facility at 116 John Street is slated to open sometime late 2012.
Darrell Rubens and Annie Shinn, both of Winick Realty Group, represented the USPS and Metro Loft Management, the landlords of 116 John Street.
Metro Loft Management purchased the Art Deco building for $25 million in April 2011.
Avinash K. Malhotra Architects supervised the building’s plans to convert the building from an office building to 418 rental units.
The post office is moving into the former site of Andrew’s Coffee Shop, which had been in the space for 20 years. Asking rent was $110-per-square-foot. The lease is for approximately 10 years.
“It’s a corner, it has almost 100 feet of frontage and it will be just a new space for them at a much better location,” said Mr. Rubens, who estimates that this his tenth deal on John Street. He had worked on two Duane Reade deals, Crunch Gym, and Bon Chon Chicken retail deals on John Street in the past decade, he told The Commercial Observer.
There is one remaining retail space at 1,900 square feet that Mr Rubens is currently fielding offers for.
“When I heard the 1 Peck Slip location was closing, I immediately reached out to the Postal Service, with whom I had done a deal seven years ago at 63 Wall Street,” said Mr. Rubens in a prepared statement.
The city Department of Education announced in November 2011 that it would be opening a K-5 elementary school in 1 Peck Slip in 2015.
Neither he nor Ms. Shinn were immediately available for comment.
Last September, U.S. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said that the agency was facing losses of $8 billion, and proposed ending Saturday deliveries and shuttering 3,700 local post offices to help stave off further financial difficulties.
