BURBANK — The Magnolia Park Post Office will close at the end of the year because of a lease increase and be combined with Burbank’s main post office on Hollywood Way, officials said.
The Magnolia Park office, at 3810 W. Magnolia Way, will close in December, when the lease is up, then move 1 1/2 miles to 2140 N. Hollywood Way, said Richard Maher, a U.S. Postal Service spokesman.
“The lease is far above fair market value,” he said.
The post office on Hollywood Way will be remodeled so that it can accommodate the additional staff and P.O. boxes from the Magnolia Park office, Maher said. But no closing date for the Magnolia Park office has been set, he said.
Employees at the Magnolia Park office will not be laid off, he said, but the postal service has struggled financially recently and is trying to balance its budget.
“We are looking at doing everything we can to reduce costs and maintain service to our customers,” he said.
Besides the economy, people have been using the postal service less because of the increased availability of shipping on the Internet, Maher said.
“These days, customers don’t have to go to a postal office any more,” he said. “Postal service volume, historically, has been a reflection of the economy.”
But some business owners, whose shops are in the same strip mall with the post office, fear that their profits will dwindle when the post office closes its doors, and they have begun collecting residents’ signatures on petitions in protest of the closure.
“The whole block depends on the foot traffic that goes into the post office,” said Mari Saso, who owns Dupli-Cat Printing shop.
She began leasing the shop two years ago because it was close to the post office, and she hoped people would stop at her shop after getting their mail.
The closure of the post office would mean a “huge loss of income” for Saso, she said.
Atomic Records owner Rick Alper also decided to lease his store at the strip mall because he thought post office customers would go to his shop, and they did.
Another upside of being next to the post office, he said, was being able to ship out packages without traveling far.
Since Alper found out about the post office closing, he began collecting signatures from residents, who were also upset about the closure. Alper has gathered about 200 signatures from residents who oppose the closure.
“It will turn this area into a dead zone,” Alper said.
“It’s a really sad thing if it happens.”
Cathy Whitaker, the owner of Cobblestone Gift and Floral Designs, has collected more than 80 signatures at her shop.
The closure of the post office will ruin business for many shops, she said.
“The only thing that brings people here is that post office,” Whitaker said. “It will absolutely kill us.”
