Nancy Sarnoff reports that the U.S. Postal Service is putting its entire 16-acre downtown facility on the market, including the classic modern main building. The building was designed by Houston’s own pseudo-brutalists Wilson, Morris, Crain and Anderson in 1962, when precast concrete fins were all the rage.
There are a few stipulations to the sale:
Whoever buys the property at 401 Franklin must build a replacement processing facility for the postal service, as well as provide a retail location near the existing site where consumers can mail packages and buy stamps.
- Downtown Houston post office up for sale [Houston Chronicle]
That’s a screwed up stipulation unless the prices is extremely low-balled.
The building is an good brutalist representation with a touch international design as seen in the Exxon Building and on several of the American General Center buildings.
Kind of silly to be selling in this market. The govt. could have made a lot more money if they had put this on the market in 2007. It would make more sense to wait at this point…less credit, less buyers = lower price.
Ah but USPS hadn’t twigged quite how bad their cashflow was in 2007. Now they are losing money hand over fist and need to cut their losses fast. The value of the land plus the savings they can realize by moving to a smaller more efficient facility probably make it worthwhile at this stage.