U.S. Postal Service supplier plans to close in Manoa

A contract postal unit, or CPU, that offers U.S. Postal Service products and serv­ ices at Manoa Marketplace will shut down at the end of the month.

The lease for the Manoa CPU, a supplier contracted by the USPS and privately operated, is set to expire, and it appears that the decision to close was spurred by a new lease with higher rent.

A note at the office by the “Manoa CPU Team” said that it wanted to “offset our new proposed rent, and related expenses” by asking the USPS to renegotiate the operator’s contract.

“That request was denied by our contracting office at USPS headquarters,” according to Duke Gonzales, a USPS strategic communications specialist, who responded by email to inquiries from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “Ultimately, the Manoa CPU operator decided to discontinue his business.”

Real estate company Alexander & Baldwin, which owns Manoa Marketplace, was not immediately available for comment.

Management at the Manoa Marketplace CPU was also unavailable, but the note at the office said, “With zero increase in our contracted rate we will be unable to continue operating the Manoa CPU. Mahalo for your support and friendship over the last 10 years! It’s been our absolute pleasure being part of the Manoa community and we will miss all of you going forward.”

The closure means the Manoa area will be without a post office or location offering USPS services, and it was an issue brought up at a Wednesday night neighborhood board meeting in Manoa.

“I know my family’s personally used that post office for as long as we’ve lived in Manoa, and from what people said at the meeting last night, it sounds like it’s important to a lot of people who want access to that service without having to leave the valley,” Dave Nagaji, a member of the Manoa Neighborhood Board, told the Star-Advertiser. “I think there’s a consensus that we want the post office to stay — we just weren’t able to figure out a specific plan about what we can do about it.”

Gonzales said the priority now is to make sure service continues for Manoa’s 900 or so P.O. box customers, who can look for a P.O. box at the post offices at Makiki or Moiliili or can switch their delivery to their homes or businesses.

Gonzales is advising customers to submit an online or hard-copy “Change of Address” request to USPS by Sept. 29.