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The neighborhood has been without a post office since 2019, when structural issues forced the closure of the Harvard Street location.
The U.S. Postal Service has backed away from plans to move the long-closed branch there, ending months of lease negotiations, developers of the mixed-use project rising on the site of the former Allston Post Office said Thursday.
“This is a disappointing and unexpected decline, especially given the Postal Service’s prior commitment to the community,” Noah Maslan of Eden Properties said in a statement.
Maslan said the developers and USPS had fully negotiated the lease with construction plans in place and were ready to move forward.
“Their decision to reverse course was made at a higher level within USPS and appears to reflect broader shifts, not just conditions in Allston,” he said.
At the end of 2019, USPS Announce Service has been suspended at the Allston branch at 47 Harvard Ave. It redirected customers to the Brighton Post Office. At the time, USPS said the “temporary suspension” was due to needed structural repairs at the Allston facility. The post office never reopened.
In 2023, Eden Properties filed plans with the city to build a new 170-unit mixed-use apartment complex on its former site. As part of the plans, developers have proposed returning the post office to 25-39 Harvard Street, as part of its larger six-storey project.
The Postal Service discussed the proposal with the City Council that same year and mailed postcards to residents and businesses in 2024 to solicit community input.
In a June 2025 letter to the city’s mayor, USPS said it supports moving the post office to a “yet to be determined” location as close to the previous location as possible, adding that the new space will allow it to restore retail operations in the long term.
Following the news on Thursday, Boston City Councilor Liz Brydon also expressed her concerns.
“The Allston community has been waiting for the return of a local post office, and this decline is very disappointing,” she said in a statement.
Brydon said she will continue to work with state and federal partners to restore the post office.
Eden Properties has expressed a desire to see the post office developed.
“We continue to believe this site is viable and will provide an important and long-overdue service to the community,” Maslan said. “We are prepared to move forward if USPS is willing to reengage.”
USPS did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday morning.
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