Town of Boone Submits Proposal for Downtown Post Office

Story by Kathleen McFadden

Last week, the Town of Boone submitted a proposal for purchasing the downtown post office. Boone Town Council member Janet Pepin explained the process, but said she could not comment on the terms of the proposal.

On Wednesday, April 30, U.S. Postal Service Public Information Officer Enola Rice said the Postal Service is “negotiating with an interested party at this time.” Because the negotiations are confidential, Rice said she could not comment further and also could not provide a timeline. “Once negotiations begin,” she said, “there is no time frame.”

In April 2006, rumors surfaced that the Postal Service was planning to sell the downtown post office. The Postal Service denied those rumors, but in January 2008, a notice taped to the front door of the downtown Boone Post Office stated, “The US Postal Service is selling the US Post Office, downtown station building at 689 West King Street, Boone, North Carolina.”

Pepin said the Postal Service provided its request for proposal, outlining the guidelines for submitting bids on the property, in late March, and completed proposals were due on April 22. “That gave us less than 30 days to put it together,” Pepin said.

But the town’s Historic Preservation Commission brought together a number of people who wanted to support the purchase of the property by a local government entity to ensure its preservation, and the town submitted its bid on time.

According to the RFP, the Postal Service’s objective is to sell the property at the highest price on terms and conditions acceptable to the Postal Service. And the top criterion for evaluating proposals, Pepin said, is purchase price. Another important criterion is submitting a deposit with the proposal, something the town did.

The bidder’s proposed use of the building is one of the lesser criteria for proposal evaluation, Pepin said, and nothing in the RFP materials requested that bidders outline their plans for restoring the facility.

However, historical covenants will be placed on the deed that will not permit the destruction of the building, and the State Historic Preservation Office will have full authority over all renovations, Pepin said.

Pepin said the RFP materials noted that the Postal Service might give preference to government entities that submit proposals, as well as to buyers who will permit the Postal Service to continue to operate in the building. This potential for preferential review, however, did not make it into the list of criteria for evaluating the proposals, so Pepin is unclear about what weight if any the Postal Service will give those two factors.

The RFP noted that the Postal Service would review all proposals but has the option to accept or reject any of them.

“I’m confident we put in a very good proposal and I’m waiting with baited breath like everyone else in town for the decision,” Pepin said.

“If the Town of Boone is lucky enough to win, we would certainly be restoring that building,” she said.