Putting a Stamp on Downtown

pending post office move will open location for development

Tom Giffey, photos by Andrea Paulseth |

Eau Claire’s downtown post office could leave its current home, 126 N. Barstow St. (below), by the end of the year. The move would allow for new development, which could include extending Galloway Street (indicated by dashed red lines in map above), creating a more connected and compelling neighborhood.
Eau Claire’s downtown post office could leave its current home, 126 N. Barstow St. (below),
by the end of the year. The move would allow for new development, which could include
extending Galloway Street (indicated by dashed red lines in map above), creating a more
connected and compelling neighborhood.

Eau Claire’s downtown post office will need a forwarding address soon, perhaps as early as the end of the year, and four downtown sites are in the running for its new home.

Meanwhile, the building that has housed the post office for more than half a century will likely be sold in the next few months, a step paving the way for a significant redevelopment that could open up a major new gateway to downtown Eau Claire.

Although the post office’s lease lasts until Sept. 30, 2014, U.S. Postal Service officials have told the city that they want to be out of the 126 N. Barstow St. building by the end of 2013.

The possible new sites for the post office have been winnowed to four, said Mike Schatz, executive director of the city’s Redevelopment Authority. Two are existing buildings while two are vacant sites. Among them: the Graham Riverside office building, 402  Graham Ave., whose other tenants include MET Credit Union and the Ruder Ware law office; the recently built multi-use building at 225 E. Madison St., which until early January housed Charly’s Market; a lot owned by developer John Mogensen at the corner of North Barstow and Madison streets, where Burger King once stood; and the lot owned by the RDA at the corner of North Barstow and Wisconsin streets across from The Livery, which is currently used for parking.

The RDA is close to striking a deal to buy the current post office building from Gateway Industrial Park Corp., the nonprofit development entity that serves as the post office’s landlord, for $350,000. Schatz said the sale could be completed by this spring. (RDA staff recently conducted a walk-through to inspect the building.)

After the RDA buys it, there’s only a slim chance the 1962-era building will survive, Schatz said. More than likely, Schatz said, it will be razed for new development on the roughly 1.5 acre lot. Among the most exciting options is the potential extension of Galloway Street west through the property (the street currently dead-ends next to the post office) and connecting it with Riverfront Terrace, which would create a more fully-realized street grid for the Phoenix Park neighborhood, and connect  the U.S. 53 bypass straight to Phoenix Park.

After more than 50 years, why would the post office want to move? In a digital age of declining mail volume (witness the impending end of Saturday mail deliverity), the current 27,000-square-foot building is too big for the post office’s 21st-century needs: Last year, postal officials told the Eau Claire City Council they want to downsize to a space of just 3,000 to 4,000 square feet.

“The use of the post office has been getting less and less,” Schatz noted. “While it does generate traffic, which you want to do in a downtown, the site is so valuable for the whole redevelopment plan that we want to make sure that that site (is redeveloped).”