RENO -- Today, the Reno City Council acting as the Redevelopment Agency Board moved ahead with the sale of the historic downtown Reno Post Office Station along with approving a lease agreement for a post office relocation site.

The $1.25 million purchase from the United States Postal Services allows the City of Reno to sell the facility to a local developer, 50 South Virginia LLC, for redevelopment. The purchase does not incur any cost for the City of Reno or the Redevelopment Agency as the developer pays for all fees associated with the transaction.

The purchase and sale of the downtown station will allow for continued access to the Riverwalk, maintain a downtown postal service retail facility, and ensure historic preservation.

The agreement with the local developer has a series of historic covenants to the deed that will follow all future owners in requiring a specific level of maintenance and redevelopment approval by the State Historic Preservation Office. In addition, the Redevelopment Agency outlined milestones in the purchase and sale agreement that requires review and recommendation of all future redevelopment of the facility by the Redevelopment Agency Advisory Board and the Historic Resources Commission along with final approval of all redevelopment plans to the Redevelopment Agency Board.

Yesterday, the United States Postal Service gave notice that their recommendation for a relocation site is the Parking Gallery, located at 135 North Sierra Street. To help move forward with the relocation, in today’s Redevelopment Agency meeting, the Board approved the lease agreement for the Parking Gallery. It is anticipated that the United States Postal Service will vacate the current Downtown Post Office Station at 50 South Virginia Street by the end of September or beginning of October 2012 after the Postal Services’ 30 day public comment process for relocation is complete.

A development plan from 50 South Virginia LLC will be returning to the Redevelopment Agency Board within 24 months of the Postal Service vacating the Downtown Post Office Station.