A future New Canaan Post Office will be located on Locust Avenue, occupying contiguous .18- and .21-acre properties just below the municipal parking lot.
18-26 Locust Ave. in New Canaan. Credit: Michael Dinan
Town officials said the United States Postal Service informed them Monday that it had selected 18-26 Locust Ave. over the other candidate (on Park Street, next to Mrs. Green’s).
First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said in a press release that he looks forward “to the public dialogue and review of the plans for the new facility at that location.”
“Like so many of you, I am most anxious to have a permanent home for our Post Office,” Mallozzi said.
It isn’t clear just when the Post Office expects to make the move, how much capital work is required to prepare the site or just when or how, long-term, the plans will affect the commercial property at 26 Locust Ave. that includes Carpe Diem restaurant.
The restaurant’s owner, New Canaan’s Hakan Basaran, said he’s excited about the Post Office finding a better location and reiterated that Carpe Diem is operating.
“We are here and we will continue,” he said.
The restaurant has inchoate and exciting plans for Greenwich, he said.
Together, the properties on Locust encompass a large parcel between the municipal parking lot and disused Bank of America building.
A USPS spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment.
The deep, narrow lot at 18 Locust Ave. includes a 2,338-square-foot structure. It sold in February for $1,125,000. Number 26 Locust Ave. includes a 3-story structure with about 3,000 square feet, including the restaurant.
The principal of the company that bought it, New Canaan’s Richard Carratu, said he’s planning to submit plans to the town very soon.
“I personally I spent some time with this and I am excited and proud to be able to develop the Post Office for the town,” Carratu told NewCanaanite.com. “There are still a lot of open issues that we are dealing with, with the town and with the Post Office, that we are trying to wrap up as soon as we can.”
He declined to comment on the plans themselves or timetable for the project, citing the pending P&Z submission.
New Canaan Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Tucker Murphy, who has been involved in the discussions with the Post Office alongside government officials, said Locust Avenue was “a sensible location.”
“Given all we have been through to get to this point, it is encouraging that we are moving in the right direction,” Murphy said.
Told of the Post Office’s decision, Joe’s Pizza owner Lorenzo Colella said he was excited, since the move could bring needed traffic to the street.
“Locust will be more of a destination street,” Colella said.
He added that other commercial enterprises on Locust have struggled to survive.
“Every other business has changed ownership and hasn’t had any kind of positive draw on the street, especially with the bank [on the corner at Forest Street] closed for almost four years,” Colella said.
It’s been more than one year since the New Canaan Post Office had a permanent location. Since the lease at its longtime home on Park and Pine expired, the Post Office has been operating out of 90 Main St.—which has proven to be a difficult location for parking in the downtown. Town, business and government leaders met in November with USPS officials to help identify a workable long-term location in New Canaan.
USPS on Feb. 6 announced the two finalists for a permanent location and opened a 30-day comment period intended to gather up any objections to either property. No comments were received during the period, USPS officials have said. New Canaanites in a poll were split between the candidates, with several comments on the poll dealing with prospective parking crunches at each site.
Here’s a map plotting the contiguous locations on Locust that the Post Office will occupy: