City in talks to purchase Peck Slip Post Office for school use

Negotiations have resumed between the U.S. Postal Service and the New York City Department of Education, in a deal that would turn the Peck Slip Post Office in Lower Manhattan into a 400-seat elementary school, according to DNAinfo. The postal service first entered talks with city officials to sell the property this past summer, after putting the 70,800-square-foot building at 1 Peck Slip between Pearl and Water streets on the market in the spring. But negotiations deadlocked and the proposed sale, which officials say could help alleviate Lower Manhattan’s overcrowded schools, appeared to be in jeopardy. Now, however, a spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s office said he is “cautiously optimistic” that the deal could go through. It was not immediately clear how much the building is being marketed for, or how much it’s being negotiated for. [DNAinfo]