Postal real estate officials have been searching for almost a decade to find a worthy site. One was found at 23 Mile Road near Van Dyke Avenue in Shelby Township in 1996, on the site of the old General Motors Test Track, but residents fought against the development, claiming traffic concerns. Plans were scrapped in 1998.
Currently, the agency uses a 200,000-sf facility in Troy, but the delivery jobs have outgrown that building, LaBruayere says.
"We've been constrained in the Troy facility for many years," she tells GlobeSt.com. "The extensive growth of mail volume for this area, especially with the many new developments, has shown the great need for a new center. Our current facility handles more mail than any other when compared to facilities across the country."
LaBruayere says the agency cannot reveal the locations it's considering. They are in an area bounded by I-75, and 14 Mile, Sashabaw and Dequindre roads, she says. An area that was looked at years ago, but then rejected for the Shelby Township site, was the vacant land on the southeast corner of M-59 and Dequindre, and land exactly one mile to the south along 19 Mile Road.
The new facility must be built, regardless of a new freeze on capital expenditures due to a $2-billion shortfall within the agency, LaBruayere says. Recently, Liberty Property Trust officials told Troy the post office pulled plans for a lease at the new Big Beaver Technology Park.
A location decision for the new processing building will be made within 60 days, LaBruayere says. The areas that would be covered by this facility include the zip codes that start with 480 and 483, which includes much of Macomb, Oakland, St. Clair and Lapeer counties.
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