Crowded Field Vying for Old Postal Site

A Texas developer of high-tech commercial centers and the Children’s Museum of Los Angeles are among a broad field of bidders competing to buy the former Terminal Annex post office in downtown Los Angeles.

The U.S. Postal Service, which owns the historical facility on the eastern edge of downtown Los Angeles, is expected to respond to the offers--several of them topping $20 million--by the middle of March, according to people familiar with the property. The 60-year-old Mission Revival-style building was the city’s main postal facility until 1989.

The USPS called for bids last month after discussions with the Art Center College of Design failed to result in a deal that would move the Pasadena art school to the vacant post office. Officials from the Art Center did not return calls, but brokers and city officials say the school is considering other downtown sites.

The USPS and its advisors--including Los Angeles developer Wayne Ratkovich--are studying a “double-digit” number of bids that were received last week for a 6.4-acre portion of Terminal Annex. The vast majority of the bidders were interested in commercial uses for the complex at Alameda Street and Cesar Chavez Avenue, according to brokers familiar with the process.

One of the bidders was Dallas-based Nexcomm Properties, which owns the 1.6-million-square-foot Infomart-Dallas, a giant center for Internet and telecommunications firms. Nexcomm has proposed turning the vacant Terminal Annex into Infomart-Los Angeles as part of its plan to build a string of Internet and telecommunications centers in major cities across the nation.

Nexcomm Chairman Philip Wise said Infomart-Los Angeles would probably bring 1,000 jobs to the downtown core. Previous proposals to transform the building into a giant telecommunications switching station were opposed by city officials because they would generate few jobs.

“We see great appeal in the historic and the icon status of that building,” Wise said. He would not reveal the value of Nexcomm’s bid.

A $7.5-million bid for the property was submitted by the Children’s Museum of Los Angeles, which is currently located near City Hall. An attempt by the museum to build a facility in or near Griffith Park has met with fierce neighborhood resistance.

Museum officials were not available for comment. But city Recreation and Parks Commissioner Lisa Specht said other local officials have begun to lobby federal officials to back the museum’s bid.

“They will get richer offers, but in terms of public benefit, I don’t think there would be anything more beneficial for the city of Los Angeles than having this institution located at that site,” Specht said.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has also indicated an interest in Terminal Annex for a potential high school site. But the district did not submit an offer, according to real estate observers.