The U.S. Postal Service’s attempts to sell the downtown Camas Post Office might be closer to coming to fruition than a representative indicated last week.
The Postal Service is considering a bid for the building, said customer relations coordinator Ron Anderson this week, one week after stating the process was “still at square one.” He did not know who made the bid or when the real estate office reviewing the bid would make its decision whether to accept.
The U.S. Postal Service created controversy in late 2009 when it announced it would seek to sell the downtown Camas Post Office and move its operations to the city’s annex building to save money. Residents and public officials in Camas have decried the proposed move’s impact on the city’s downtown area.
On Monday, Clark County businessman Will Macia said he had received a letter from the U.S. Postal Service on Dec. 22 accepting his bid of $430,000 for the Camas building. But the deal has stalled for reasons unknown to Macia, the president of Last U.S. Bag Co., a Vancouver-based business that sells custom-sewn bags and cases and employs around 22 people.
Macia declined further comment later in the week, noting in an e-mail sent Wednesday “things have moved forward in the last (two) days.”
When interviewed Monday, Macia disagreed with Anderson’s statements that, while the Postal Service had spoken with interested parties, a deal was not imminent.
Macia’s bid matched the Postal Service’s asking price, he said. Both sides have sent paperwork back and forth, but Macia said he had not received the final memorandum of understanding needed to finalize the deal.
“This process, for us, has been one of the most frustrating we’ve ever been through,” Macia said. He described the past three months as a “comedy of errors on the United States Postal Service’s side.”
Macia has been a resident of Camas for eight years and views the downtown post office as an ideal venue for his business. He would use the post office building as a retail showroom and administrative office space.
“It would be a great move for us to own a piece of history like the post office,” he said. Last U.S. Bag Co. currently has offices in Vancouver and Stevenson.
Macia is in an awkward situation, he said, because he is about to renew the six-month lease on one of his buildings. Should he receive the go-ahead from the U.S. Postal Service to buy the downtown Camas office, he would be paying simultaneously on two buildings that would essentially serve the same purpose.
“I need to move forward,” he said. “I can’t continue to wait.”
Ray Legendre: 360-735-4517 or ray.legendre@columbian.com.
