Postal Service preparing move to new Iowa City post office

IOWA CITY - Nearly one year after signing a lease at Pepperwood Plaza, officials with the United States Postal Service say they plan to occupy the new space yet this month.

Twana Barber, communications program specialist with the USPS in Kansas City, Mo., said the plan is to occupy the new post office at 925 Highway 6 E on April 25.

Iowa City Postmaster Stacy St. John said the new location will be much improved from the current site at the Iowa City Federal Building, 400 S. Clinton St.

'It will be brand-new facility for the retail area,” she said. 'It will be a very modern and up-to-date facility for the retail customers.”

St. John said the official move-in date will not be identified until after a Thursday inspection of the new post office.

USPS's lease at the Iowa City Federal Building - which costs the USPS $700,000 a year in rent - will end April 30.

Barber said she couldn't provide the exact cost of the new rent, but said it will be 'substantially lower.”

Work on Iowa City's new post office stalled last fall when early freezing hindered groundwork on the creation of docking bays for postal trucks. But construction managed to get back on track, St. John said.

The new location is about 17,400 square feet, compared with the current roughly 26,000-square-foot space.

USPS officials announced plans in August 2013 to find a new, smaller post office following several years of budget woes for the organization. At the time, officials predicted to lose about $6 billion in that fiscal year.

Earlier this year, the USPS ended the first quarter of fiscal year 2015 with a 4.3 percent increase in operating revenue over the same period one year before. Despite the increased revenue, USPS still had a net loss of $754 million for the quarter.

Coralville residents have also dealt with a restructuring of their postal services, after the USPS closed the old facility at 420 10th Ave. last year and moved to the USPS-owned carrier annex at 2150 James St.

St. John said work has been going smoothly at the carrier annex.

That's not to say the restructuring hasn't come with its share of controversy, as city officials in Coralville and Iowa City filed appeals to the plans to move out of each community's downtown areas.

Despite the appeals, USPS officials proceeded with the relocations.

Geoff Fruin, Iowa City assistant to the city manager, said city officials still plan to explore the possibilities of bringing some post office amenities downtown, such as passport services, if even on a temporary basis.

'Once they get set up and established, we'll have some more detailed discussion on how we might work together to bring those services downtown,” Fruin said.

Local businesses can also pick up such offerings as post office boxes, flat rates or mailboxes if they so choose. St. John said no downtown businesses have opted to offer such services.

'We haven't had any real solid interest, we've had inquiries,” she said.