An end may be in sight to the ongoing saga of the shuttered Bolinas Post Office, which could wind up back where it started—on Brighton Avenue, sandwiched between the Waterhouse Building and the liquor store.
Gregg Welsh, the Ventura County resident who owns the site, has agreed to the terms of a new five-year lease, according to Kent Khtikian, a Bolinas attorney who helped negotiate the proposed agreement. But it won’t take effect unless the United States Postal Service approves it, which is taking longer than expected, Mr. Khtikian told the Bolinas Civic Group last week.
Mr. Welsh had agreed to “very generous” financial terms, according to Mr. Khtikian.
“Mr. Welsh was compromising and reasonable at each stage,” he said. “He was easy to work with.”
Since the post office closed in 2023 due to a dispute over asbestos in floor tiles installed by the postal service, the town has waged a fervent campaign to bring the facility back to town. After Mr. Welsh declined to renew the post office’s lease, he listed the property—which contains two buildings, including one that burned in a 2020 fire—on the market for $5 million.
Community members have since lobbied state, county and federal officials and flooded the postal service with cards, letters, artwork and poetry to underscore the urgency of their mission.
“We do not yet have a final new Waterhouse complex lease signed by both parties, but we are on track, have cleared endless hurdles to get this far, all general terms have been agreed to, and we believe it is imminent,” said John Borg, a resident who has helped lead the post office campaign.
According to Mr. Borg, the dispute over the asbestos was resolved last year after the post office removed the tiles and an environmental services firm issued a report confirming that the work complied with all regulations.
After witnessing the community’s extraordinary campaign to bring the facility back, Mr. Welsh let it be known that he would be willing to reconsider a new lease, Mr. Borg said. Mr. Welsh signed the proposed agreement on March 13.
“He saw how much the community wanted the post office back, and he was sympathetic to us,” Mr. Borg said.
Negotiations over the new lease have been conducted under the radar between Mr. Khtikian, Mr. Welsh, a postal service leasing agent and Tom Wredberg, an agent at Oceanic Realty.
Mr. Wredberg has known Mr. Welsh for years and is serving as his agent in the potential sale of the Waterhouse complex. If the sale goes through, the new owner would be required to honor the terms of the post office lease.
Mr. Khtikian’s report to the civic group offered the first detailed public airing of the lease discussions. He predicted that a final deal could be reached within three or four months but said the proposal had encountered a few bumps due to complex postal service protocols.
The U.S.P.S. sent an architect to inspect the building about two months ago, and the service is currently conducting an environmental assessment.
“Dealing with postal service bureaucracy, protocols, excessively complicated systems, and scrutiny of reasonable solutions to this matter is a challenge none of us involved could have ever imagined,” Mr. Borg said.
Despite the snags, he expressed optimism about the prospects for the post office’s return to its longtime home. The village has had a post office since 1863.
Patrick Morris, Mr. Welsh’s attorney, offered a more tentative assessment.
“There have been negotiations, Dr. Welsh made some very generous concessions, and U.S.P.S. seems interested, but not enough to provide a lease agreement for review,” Mr. Morris told the Light in an email.
But even the tentative prospect of an agreement comes as a relief to Bolinas residents, who have been forced to drive to Stinson Beach and Olema to pick up their mail since March 2023.
Residents spent months working on a proposal for a temporary post office in a portable office at Mesa Park, but the postal service never endorsed it.
After Mr. Welsh agreed to renew the lease last March, Mr. Borg and Mr. Khtikian presented the proposed agreement to Representative Jared Huffman, who submitted it to U.S.P.S. officials in Washington. The fate of the proposal is now in their hands.