February 2, 2008 – Fort Dearborn Station, the post office at 540 North Dearborn Street, will close, a postal official confirmed at a public meeting on January 30.

River North residents filled an employee lunchroom on the second floor of the post office to hear Bradford Meador, Manager of Real Estate for the USPS Great Lakes Facilities Service Office, announce plans to sell the facility. A new post office, and possibly an annex, would be built elsewhere to serve zip codes 60610 and 60611.

Photo by Lynn Becker

Exactly where the new post offices would be located would be up to developers who will receive a request for proposals in mid-March. They will have 60 days to respond.

Meador said they want to improve operational efficiency and generate revenue – enough to build the new post office and annex, plus a profit if possible. He would not say how much they hope to sell for. Fort Dearborn Station, says Meador, cannot keep up with demands of its two postal zones. 266 postal employees work there.

Zoning regulations would allow a building up to 490,000 square feet in size. The current facility is 105,000 square feet.

Representatives of 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly and Congressman Danny Davis attended the meeting. Reilly has said he would like to see the 1.6-acre site converted into a park. One possibility is that a land swap with the city would move the post office to another location. Other options would keep the post office at its current location, either as a new or refurbished facility.

[Architecture writer Lynn Becker assisted with this story.]