Tucked behind Kenmore Square at 11 Deerfield Street, the large central post office and distribution center is looking for a new location after their lease expires this November. So far, no new location has been found to replace this well-used location.
The centrally located post office currently serves Boston University students, nearby businesses and is the distribution center for the many residences in the area.
Kurtis Bullard, real estate specialist for UPS, believes they will find two separate locations, one for the retail and the other for the distribution center.
“This is a challenging project,” said Bullard. “especially because adequate parking is hard to find.”
Bullard said they are currently looking for an accessible space that the current customers can use but have not found it yet.
“We will cast a wide net and see what we can find,” he said.
The developers Related Beal has plans to redevelopment the entire corner of Kenmore Square including the Post Office, former Boston University Buildings, and New England School of Photography into office space and ground-floor retail.
Bullard said it was hard to tell community members what the long-term plans are for the Kenmore Square post office because they don’t have a location in mind yet.
He hopes to continue communication with residents to let them know what will happen to their P.O. boxes and were the new retail location will be as the the project progresses.
The biggest challenge will be finding a distribution center that is located within this zip code. Bullard said that when they relocate other post offices they can usually find a place within six months but, since this center is so big he said, it will be hard to find a replacement.
The Kenmore Square location has a work room, back storage and a three-door dock for delivery trucks.
“The whole operation needs a lot of space,” said Bullard.
Finding that space, he said, is really hard, especially when Boston is in the midst of a building boom and finding a large prime location can be very expensive and hard to come by.
This current location is surrounded by land owned by Boston University and stuck in an island between the Turnpike and Storrow Drive.
When asked what will happen if they don’t find a new location, Bullard said, “We hope that won’t happen. We are out on the market place looking and working with people to find out what’s here. There are a couple options for retail, but the distribution is going to be a challenge.”