As La Plata County continues to reconfigure its administrative space, officials are discussing plans to sell the Old Main Post Office, an asset worth at least $5 million.
The county purchased the building at 1060 Main Ave. for $3.1 million in 2004. It houses the 6th Judicial District Attorney’s office and other county departments.
According to the county assessor, the building is worth about $4.9 million. But that valuation is based on real estate transactions in 2014, so it could be worth slightly more by the time the county is ready to sell.
That’s a few years away. First, the county intends to relocate the engineering department from the building to share a facility with the county road and bridge department located just south of Home Depot.
That would require building an addition, which would be written into the 2017 budget and cost an estimated $1.5 million, county spokeswoman Megan Graham said.
Once an ongoing courthouse remodel is complete, district attorney offices will move from the old post office into space at the County Courthouse on East Second Avenue along with U.S. District Court and federal probation offices.
That leaves the county figuring out where to relocate its treasurer, human resources and information technology departments, all of which are housed at 1060 Main Ave.
Offices at 10 Burnett Court, which the county purchased this year, as well as leased space at 135 Burnett Court and any remaining room in the lower level of the courthouse are potential locations. For practical reasons, the county also wants the clerk and treasurer departments eventually to be housed under the same roof.
“Right now, we’re still working on how the puzzle pieces fit with the spaces we have,” assistant county manager Joanne Spina said. As for the sale of the post office, the county might not take any action until 2019.
“We just wanted to have the conversation sooner rather than later,” she said.
In addition to purchasing 10 Burnett Court, where the human services department is located, the county also relocated its building, planning and code enforcement offices this year from the courthouse basement to 211 Rockpoint Drive at the Durango Tech Center.
jpace@durangoherald.com
