Dec 13, 2001 — After 45 years in the same building in downtown Christiansted, the U.S. Postal Service officially moved into its new digs Tuesday a block and half uptown.
Dozens of people gathered for the ribbon cutting celebrating the new building off of the Shan Williams Market Square on Company Street. Two years ago, the Postal Service decided to leave its former, 2,900 square-foot site in the 250-year-old Danish West Indies & Guinea Co. warehouse building in order to find a larger downtown location, according to Tom Pino, an asset manager with the Postal Service. The National Park Service, the owner of the Christiansted National Historic Site in which the historic building sits, purchased the structure from the Postal Service and plans to turn it into a museum dedicated to the African slave trade.
The new, approximately 5,000 square-foot building is being leased by the Postal Service for 20 years, with four five-year renewal options, from Christiansted businessman Mike Harris. Harris said that beginning last February, the new building off the square, which was then mostly vacant, was gutted and totally renovated to include a second-floor employee lounge, bathrooms and a full-service elevator. The $525,000-turnkey project was completed in November.
"Mike was very creative and it worked out to be a very nice project, actually," Pino said.
Carmelo Rivera, president of the St. Croix Chamber of Commerce, said that with the post office anchoring the square, the Park Service set to move into the Danish West Indies & Guinea Co. warehouse building and the St. Croix Community Foundation's renovation of Times Square, Christiansted is receiving the attention it deserves.
"This is an important step in the march in the revitalization of Christiansted," he said.
Meanwhile, Louis Jackson, Postal Service V.I. coordinator, said plans to relocate the post office in the Sunny Isle Shopping Center have been put on the "back financial burner" because of the agency's financial problems.
"But we're going to try and bring it to the front" burner, Jackson said.