The future of the post office at 2963 Webster Ave. remains uncertain, thanks to a recent new buyer who’s been in the business of developing luxury housing.

Questions still languish over whether the post office will stay open despite assurance from high-ranking officials at the United States Postal Service (USPS) over its intention to stay.

Back in 2009 the branch was put on a potential closure list due to USPS budget cuts. However, the community rallied behind the branch to successfully keep it open. Now, the post office is threatened by potential development plans from the property’s new owner.

The rezoning of 80 blocks of Webster Avenue to support residential housing, also in 2009, has caused developers to pay high prices for real estate there, with eyes on future lucrative developments. In 2014, a developer purchased the building that holds the post office.

While there has been no official statement that the new owner will build on that location, the high price paid for the building, $1.5 million according to financial documents reviewed by the Norwood News, suggests that the property has the potential to be a major development project.

If the current post office location were to close, the increasing population of that neighborhood and the businesses that serve them will be at a loss and forced to travel to another neighborhood to access vital mail services.

The nearest post office is on the other side of Mosholu Parkway, at 3102 Decatur Ave., a half-mile from the Webster Avenue site.

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On Oct. 7, Lilliam Rodriguez, the postmaster for the Bronx, visited the Bedford-Mosholu Community Association to respond to the community’s concerns about the possible closing of that branch. “We have no intentions of going anywhere,” Rodriguez told the group.

Even so, Barbara Stronczer, president of the Bedford-Mosholu Community Association, told the postmaster that her group had already found alternative spaces for the post office to move to should it come to that. “Most of the people in Bedford Park use the post office,” Stronczer told the Norwood News, noting that there are three senior complexes in the area and two more in the planning stage. She recalled the fight to keep the branch back in 2009. “We’re ready to do that again if necessary to keep it in Bedford Park.”

The current lease for the branch expires June 2016. When the post office renegotiates the lease, they will be doing so with a new owner.

In January of 2014, Andrew Maniglia purchased the property through a limited liability company called North Central Bronx Real Estate, LLC. Maniglia has connections with a Westchester County development firm called Ginsburg Development Companies, according to an email address tied to Maniglia. The group has been in the residential real estate business for decades, building mostly luxury apartment buildings in Haverstraw and Wallkill, NY. A request for comment from Maniglia was not answered by press time.

Maniglia and North Central Bronx Real Estate, LLC have been seeking to buy a number of properties along Webster Avenue since 2013. In addition to the post office property, they also purchased a lot down the street at 2993 Webster Ave. from Julio Nuñez, who operated Nuñez Auto General Mechanic that’s wedged among the buildings of the Bedford Park Manor apartment complex developed by The Stagg Group.

Nuñez sold the property to Maniglia for $1.5 million, despite an assessed value of only $70,200, according to the transfer of deed filing. When Nuñez made the sale he said he entered into a three-year lease with the new owners to continue operating his business at the same location. But the lease will expire in February 2016 and Nuñez said he was not offered a renewal yet. Last month he relocated his business to Park Avenue between East 181st and East 182nd streets in Belmont.

“I didn’t want to move from there,” he told the Norwood News. “It’s a good location there.”

Nuñez suspected that the new owners have big plans for the location. “I imagine they will build a building there like they did next to it,” he said, referencing Bedford Park Manor. The trio of buildings opened in April of this year, and is viewed as a template for major developments along the Webster Avenue corridor. That property was the first on the block to break the million-dollar mark back in 2012 when it sold for $1,082,142.

In addition to the two properties that North Central Bronx Real Estate, LLC purchased outright, they also paid $150,000 in May 2013 to secure a right of first refusal on the two properties in between the post office and the Bedford Park Manor apartments. This deal gives the group the right to buy those properties from the current owner should they decide to sell within the next five years, with the option to extend that agreement for another five years at an additional $150,000. While the developer’s intentions for the properties on Webster Avenue are not publicly known, their attempt to buy up a string of contiguous properties there indicates an intention to develop, leaving the post office option up in the air.

Additional reporting by David Cruz