The future of the Davey Post Office is up in the air. The U.S. Postal Service has decided not to renew its lease on the office just north of Lincoln. That means it will need to move or find another way to provide services bef
KENDRA WALTKE / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Thursday, November 8, 2007 6:00 pm
The future of the Davey Post Office is up in the air.
The U.S. Postal Service has decided not to renew its lease on the office just north of Lincoln.
That means it will need to move or find another way to provide services before its lease ends Sept. 31.
Local postal service managers and the building’s owner could not agree on a fair price for the rent, said Herb Swan, district review manager for the U.S. Postal Service.
“There was an impasse,” he said. “That’s unfortunate for the community,” Swan said.
“We do have a year to work with them, and we’re planning to go down there and see what they want to do,” he said. “I guarantee we’ll be meeting with the residents.”
Closing the post office is a possibility, he said.
The postal service could look at alternate ways to provide services to the town of about 150.
The post office is in a former bank owned by Kerin Motors of Mississippi. Lawrence Magdovitz, company president, said it and other business entities under his control own more than 800 post office buildings across the country.
The postal service had paid $7,900 a year under a three-year lease for the 1,056-square-foot office.
Magdovitz said he intended to charge $8,500 a year under a new lease, but officials refused that offer.
Swan confirmed that, and said the postal service gave a counter offer of about $4,000 a year.
“We look at fair market price, looking at what is paid at post offices nearby,” Swan said.
Usually, he said, the agency pays $4 to $5 a square foot for similar properties, rather than the $7 to $8 requested by Magdovitz.
Swan said the postal service also asked for a cancellation clause in the lease, which Magdovitz said he refuses at all his postal properties.
Magdovitz said the agency closes post offices in two or three buildings he owns each year.
He said he would likely sell the building if the lease is not renewed. He has owned it since 1993.
Swan said the town of DuBois in Southeast Nebraska found a way to buy its building when the future of its post office was uncertain.
New locations for the Davey post office will be explored, he said.
Davey built a new community building a few years ago, but Swan said security measures required at a post office would be difficult to add to an open and public space.
Security, handicap-accessibility requirements and federal regulations can make retrofitting an existing building difficult, Swan said.
“It would be really good for them to stay in the building.”
Magdovitz said the businesses under his management own more post offices in Nebraska — nearby, in Hickman, Raymond and Avoca, and in Omaha, Ithaca, Cody, Colon, Trenton, Culverton, Monroe, Lawrence, Hardy, Overton, Oconto, Talmage, Plymouth, Stapleton, Elk Creek, Alliance, Valley, Anselmo, Heartwell and Wood Lake.
Reach Kendra Waltke at 473-7303 or kwaltke@journalstar.com.