|
|
|
After about a year of negotiations, a deal for Geneva-based Fagans Inc. to purchase the Geneva post office has fallen through, U.S. Postal Service representatives announced Tuesday.
The post office building was put on the market last year. Officials had planned to move operations to a smaller location or downsize to occupy 2,000 square feet of the 5,700-square-foot building.
Fagans owner Joe Stanton entered into negotiations intending to open up the space to new tenants, such as a bank, but said alterations and an expansion were required to make it economically viable.
“Saving the post office is great, but this building has to pay its bills,” Stanton said at a Geneva Historic Preservation Commission meeting in March.
He said it would cost about a $1 million to buy the building and another $1 million to renovate it.
“Dealing with the federal government has just been a nightmare,” Stanton said Wednesday. “Their response was excruciatingly slow.”
Stanton said the deal fell apart when postal officials would not grant an extension on the closing of the sale.
“It just got impossible to work with them,” Stanton said.
The post office is back on the market and Postal Service spokesman Sean Hargadon said there is no timeline to sell.
Once the building is sold, carrier operations are planned to be relocated to the St. Charles Main Post Office, but postal officials say Geneva customers would not be affected. Under the plan, customers still would be able to purchase stamps and ship packages from the downtown location.
However, Hargadon said a buyer could decide they want the whole building, at which point the post office would move to a smaller location elsewhere in Geneva.
A major concern for Geneva officials and residents has been the fate of a 1941 New Deal era mural at the downtown location. Some had feared the mural would be relocated to Washington, D.C.
“It’s not going anywhere,” Hargadon said. “It’s going to stick around. ... It’s for the (Geneva) community.”
However, Hargadon said the 17- by 9-foot mural will remain in the city, even if the new post office is too small to house it.
“We would work with the city of Geneva to keep that here, so the public can have it,” Hargadon said.
After about a year of negotiations, a deal for Geneva-based Fagans Inc. to purchase the Geneva post office has fallen through, U.S. Postal Service representatives announced Tuesday.
The post office building was put on the market last year. Officials had planned to move operations to a smaller location or downsize to occupy 2,000 square feet of the 5,700-square-foot building.
Fagans owner Joe Stanton entered into negotiations intending to open up the space to new tenants, such as a bank, but said alterations and an expansion were required to make it economically viable.
“Saving the post office is great, but this building has to pay its bills,” Stanton said at a Geneva Historic Preservation Commission meeting in March.
He said it would cost about a $1 million to buy the building and another $1 million to renovate it.
“Dealing with the federal government has just been a nightmare,” Stanton said Wednesday. “Their response was excruciatingly slow.”
Stanton said the deal fell apart when postal officials would not grant an extension on the closing of the sale.
“It just got impossible to work with them,” Stanton said.
The post office is back on the market and Postal Service spokesman Sean Hargadon said there is no timeline to sell.
Once the building is sold, carrier operations are planned to be relocated to the St. Charles Main Post Office, but postal officials say Geneva customers would not be affected. Under the plan, customers still would be able to purchase stamps and ship packages from the downtown location.
However, Hargadon said a buyer could decide they want the whole building, at which point the post office would move to a smaller location elsewhere in Geneva.
A major concern for Geneva officials and residents has been the fate of a 1941 New Deal era mural at the downtown location. Some had feared the mural would be relocated to Washington, D.C.
“It’s not going anywhere,” Hargadon said. “It’s going to stick around. ... It’s for the (Geneva) community.”
However, Hargadon said the 17- by 9-foot mural will remain in the city, even if the new post office is too small to house it.
“We would work with the city of Geneva to keep that here, so the public can have it,” Hargadon said.
