The U.S. Postal Service has completed the sale of its downtown station at West Sixth and Guadalupe streets to Atlanta-based Novare Group and its Austin partner, Andrews Urban, the development firms said Friday.

The Postal Service will continue to use the facility until early 2013, “pending a final determination of the new location of its retail operations serving downtown Austin” according to a news release.

In January, the Postal Service said its downtown carrier operations would be relocated to its station at 3903 S. Congress Ave.

Novare Group and Andrews Urban, which developed the 360 condominiums, a 44-story high-rise near the downtown post office site, haven’t said what they plan to do with the property.

In December, Andrews Urban President Taylor Andrews had said the site would be redeveloped, with options including office, residential, retail and/or hotel uses. The firms partnered with an affiliate of Austin’s Endeavor Real Estate Group on the purchase.

“This is a key block in Austin, and we and Novare are both very pleased to have completed the acquisition and to be working with Endeavor,” Andrews said.

“We are very fortunate to have the opportunity to partner with Novare and Andrews Urban on what we believe is one of the finest pieces of real estate in the city,” said Jamil Alam, managing principal of Endeavor Real Estate Group.

Terms of the deal weren’t released, but the property has an appraised value of $17.1 million, according to the Travis County Central Appraisal District.
The Postal Service solicited offers to redevelop the block in 2006, and Novare won out over five other proposals.

“After first contracting to purchase the (Postal Service) site in 2007, we are very pleased to have partnered with Taylor Andrews and Endeavor, and to have worked diligently alongside the Postal Service, to see this acquisition through the real estate cycle to completion,” said Jim Borders, president of Novare Group.