Postal Service set to leave building in downtown LV

Tuesday, March 16, 2004 | 9:40 a.m.

A lease agreement has been signed to allow the U.S. Postal Service to move from the post office and courthouse at 301 E. Stewart Ave., paving the way for Las Vegas to preserve the historic building.

The agreement between landlord Earl Morimoto and the U.S. Postal Service will move the downtown post office to 201 Las Vegas Blvd. South within 120 days, according to Las Vegas officials.

"The council is now in a position to decide what is the best use for the building and to pursue the development of the project with vigor," Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said in a written statement.

The City Council voted to take possession of the historic building in April 2002.

The Postal Service had a lease for space on the first floor through this year. The new agreement means the city can start planning for the future uses of the building sooner, city spokeswomen said.

The building must be used to benefit the community for cultural purposes, according to the terms of the 2002 transfer agreement.

The city received $250,000 in federal funds in 2003 to help transform the downtown post office once the relocation takes place.

Currently, the city is working to finish a study pertaining to the "highest and best cultural" use for the building, spokeswomen said.

The report is expected to be presented to the City Council this spring.

Last year Goodman, a longtime criminal defense attorney who represented alleged Mafia figures, had suggested that a possible use for the old post office would be a museum featuring, among other things, the mob's history in Southern Nevada.

In addition to being a longtime post office, the structure, built in 1933, was the city's first federal courthouse and one of the sites of the 1950 Kefauver hearings into organized crime

Goodman said his vision for the museum is "to tell the history of Las Vegas ... warts and all."