The U.S. government is soliciting bids for a potential renovation of the Old Post Office building, the Pennsylvania Avenue landmark which has held government offices since 1899. The General Services Administration is soliciting bids from companies interested in “redeveloping the OPO and its annex, the OPO alone or the annex alone,” but the press release makes clear renovation by the private sector is anything but certain: “If GSA determines through its review that redevelopment is not in the best interest of the government, then the Old Post Office will be retained for federal use.”
The building is one of the largest pieces of property on the central downtown corridor of Pennsylvania Avenue that could be opened up for private development, as most parcels are already government buildings or have already been developed for commercial or institutional use. (The last significant parcel was at Sixth Street NW, where the new Newseum is currently being constructed.) Last renovated in the late 1980s and heavily trafficked by downtown tourists, the building is showing its age. Regardless of the outcome, the GSA says the building’s tower will remain accessible to the public and maintained by the National Park Service, and the historic preservation of the structure will be a high priority. After being slated for demolition in the 1970s a group of citizens led by chair of the National Endowment for the Arts Nancy Hanks successfully lobbied for the building’s preservation.
