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The United States Postal Service plans to re-establish the Allston post office on Harvard Avenue after it closed four years ago.
In 2019, USPS shut down the Allston post office, citing structural damages at the site. Now, Boston-based developer Eden Properties is working with the USPS to re-establish the Allston post office on the ground floor of their 25-39 Harvard Ave. development.
According to Eden Properties Principal Noah Maslan, the development project will construct a primarily residential building with space on the ground floor for the post office and other retail and commercial tenants. Currently, the land contains vacant one-story commercial buildings and surface parking lots.
“With the support of Councilor Breadon, Allston Civic Association President Anthony D'Isidoro, and others in the community who reached out and wrote numerous letters to the USPS, we are delighted to have recently reached agreement with the USPS to move into the ground floor of the new building with a retail branch,” Maslan wrote in an email.
For the past four years, residents of Allston have had to make the trip to the Brighton post office, though the USPS stationed a temporary mobile office in Allston during the 2020-21 holiday season. The Brighton post office — located nearly a mile and a half from the old Allston branch — currently serves the 77,000 residents of both Allston and Brighton, which some claim has overcrowded the facility.
Jo-Ann Barbour, the executive director of local nonprofit Charlesview, called the closure of the Allston post office “a huge loss” due to the high volume of patrons sharing the neighboring facilities.
“What it did was create incredible long lines at the Brighton center post office so folks were really having, I think, a difficult time getting the services that they needed,” she said.
The Brighton office sits nearly a mile and a half from the old Allston branch, and according to local business owner Deanna Anderson, many people in Allston have to walk to get there.
“It's super inconvenient, and a lot of people around here don't have cars,” Anderson said.
Long-time Allston resident Bill Chan said the walk to the Brighton post office can take roughly an hour on foot, adding that “we just want the post office back, you know, instead of going to Brighton.”
Besides resulting in a longer commute for residents, the closure of the Allston post office also burdened many local small businesses, noted Alex Cornacchini, the executive director of Allston Village Main Streets, a nonprofit focused on business development in the area.
“The post office was right in our business district, so it served about 300-plus businesses, storefronts,” Cornacchini said.
After the closure, these businesses had to switch their shipping methods to either a farther USPS branch or a private company, such as FedEx or UPS.
Having submitted its proposal and architectural designs and studies to the Boston Planning and Development Agency, Eden Properties awaits final approval for the project. Still, Anthony D’Isidoro, president of the Allston Civic Association, voiced concerns in a Google Group for Allston residents about the company’s ability to follow through on its construction plans.
“Will financing be available, will the return on investment diminish over time, will the project be sold, when can we expect the building to come online, is it better to negotiate with existing commercial/retail space that could potentially come online faster,” D’Isidoro wrote.
“The community has been waiting for almost four years, how much longer do they wait,” he added.
