In addition to relocating the downtown Christiansted Post Office, the U.S. Postal Service is now planning to move the Sunny Isle station.
V.I. Postmaster Louis Jackson said the Sunny Isle Post Office will be replaced by a 6,500-square-foot facility with 15 to 25 parking spaces in the vicinity of the current site at the shopping center. It will serve a third of the population of St. Croix.
The present facility, he said, doesn't meet customer or staff needs, which includes handling some 40,000 parcels a week.
"We have to have a state-of-the-art facility" to house the "postal store" concept, Jackson said. "In order to have that, we need ample space."
An exact timeline for the relocation wasn't given, but the process can take several months.
Late last month, Postal Service officials were on St. Croix to discuss the relocation of the downtown Christiansted station. The new site will preferably be within a mile radius of the current site. Lt. Gov. Gerard Luz James II's said his preference is in Times Square.
Postal Service officials say the downtown location is, at 2,900 square feet, too small. The Postal Service will look for a space of at least 5,000 square feet within a mile of the current site. If there is nothing available, they will push the radius out to 1.5 miles.
The Postal Service is in the process of selling the building to the National Park Service, which will turn the site into a museum as part of the Christiansted National Historic Site. The post office will not move until a new location is found and made ready, which is expected to take a year.
