FORT LAUDERDALE — Neighbors along Las Olas Boulevard are saying goodbye for now to their local post office — a destination rich in history that has served the community for nearly eight decades.
The Colee Post Office, at 1404 E. Las Olas Blvd., is nestled in downtown Fort Lauderdale, within walking distance of many customers’ homes and stores. Patrons were disappointed to find a notice announcing Colee will “suspend operations at the close of business” on Friday, July 10.
“This has been a staple here,” said Kyla Giles, 29, who often ships packages from there. “Every time I come here I see familiar faces.”
“I want them to stay,” said Ellen Erlichman, 58, another regular who lives nearby.
What’s behind the closure of this postal station, which first opened in the late 1940s?
The U.S. Postal Service “was notified that the lease for this facility will not be renewed,” Debra J. Fetterly, a Postal Service spokesperson, confirmed to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
The building is owned by Las Olas Friendship LLC, property appraiser records show. The LLC is affiliated with the Las Olas Chabad Jewish Center, which has redevelopment plans for a new center at a separate nearby location, records show.
Jason Crush, a lawyer representing Las Olas Friendship LLC, said in an email that Friendship Las Olas and the postal service “decided not to renew the expiring lease.”
The post office lease expires at the end of July, and whether it eventually reopens remains unclear. Fetterly told the Sun Sentinel that the Postal Service is reviewing sites “in the area” to potentially open a new post office. The notice addressed to “Colee Customers” thanked them for their “patience during this transition.”
In this file photo, Jesse Ellis and Art Foulkes serve neighborhood charm at the Colee station on Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale in the Thursday, Oct. 8, 1981 edition of the Fort Lauderdale News. (Fort Lauderdale News)
FILE — Post office box holders are seen in the Thursday, Oct. 8, 1981 edition of the Fort Lauderdale News. (Fort Lauderdale News)
FILE — An article announcing the April 1 opening of the Colee sub-station post office appears in the Wednesday, March 9, 1949, edition of the Fort Lauderdale News. (Fort Lauderdale News)
In this file photo, Jesse Ellis uses LePage Mucilage to seal non-sticky stamps at the Colee station post office in Fort Lauderdale in the Thursday, Oct. 8, 1981, edition of the Fort Lauderdale News. (Fort Lauderdale News)
FILE — An article announcing a new Colee post office appears in the Monday, Feb. 9, 1959, edition of the Fort Lauderdale News. (Fort Lauderdale News)
FILE – Customer Sandy Sonkin walks into the Colee Station Post Office along Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. (Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
FILE – Melinda Pitcher, who lives near the Colee Station Post Office along Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, pays postal worker Ron Lux for her packages. (Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
In this file photo, Melinda and David Pitcher address their packages near the Colee Station Post Office along Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. (Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The Colee Station post office on Las Olas Blvd. is shown adjacent to The Floridian restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, on Monday, June 15, 2026. The post office, which opened in the late 1940s, is set to close in July as its lease expires. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
A customer picks up mail from a post office box at the Colee Station post office on Las Olas Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale, on Monday, June 22, 2026. The post office, which opened in the late 1940s, is set to close in July as its lease expires. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
A woman enters the Colee Station post office on Las Olas Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale, on Monday, June 15, 2026. The post office, which opened in the late 1940s, is set to close in July as its lease expires. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The Colee Station post office on Las Olas Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale, is shown on Monday, June 15, 2026. The post office, which opened in the late 1940s, is set to close in July as its lease expires. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Charlene Reese, a lead sales and service associate, helps a customer at the Colee Post Office in Fort Lauderdale. The post office, which opened in the late 1940s, is set to close in July as its lease expires. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Charlene Reese, a lead sales and service associate, helps customers at the Colee Post Office in Fort Lauderdale in Fort Lauderdale. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
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In this file photo, Jesse Ellis and Art Foulkes serve neighborhood charm at the Colee station on Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale in the Thursday, Oct. 8, 1981 edition of the Fort Lauderdale News. (Fort Lauderdale News)
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A growing city
The city of Fort Lauderdale kept seeing “remarkable” growth in the 1930s and 1940s, and with it came the need for an expanded postal service, according to past news articles.
The postmaster in 1938 noted that the post office’s money collections kept steadily increasing through the years. “The enormous gains without a doubt reflect the growth of this city and increase in population,” the Fort Lauderdale News reported in an article published on Dec. 1, 1938.
In the late 1940s, plans took shape to open a new “sub-office” on Las Olas Boulevard, while additional requests for postal stations in the north and south sides of the city also were considered.
A real estate developer, submitting a bid for the post office, set out to add a building “on a vacant lot between 13th and 14th ave. on E Las Olas blvd.,” according to a Fort Lauderdale News article from Nov. 5, 1948. The post office, expected to have 15 workers, would “serve upwards of 15,000 persons in the area east of Federal hwy.”
Four months later, in 1949, a news article’s headline announced, “Colee Sub-Station to open April 1.”
According to Michaela Conca, president of the Broward Trust for Historic Preservation, the name comes from the post office’s location, the Colee Hammock neighborhood of Fort Lauderdale. Colee Hammock, she said, was named after James Colee, an engineer responsible helping plat the original neighborhood.
In 1959, the postmaster announced that the Colee post office would be “replaced sometime this year,” while assuring residents that another facility would be leased while the transition happened.
A strong sense of community has long endured at the Colee post office.
A Fort Lauderdale News story from Oct. 8, 1981, noted how the post office “provides box holders with a prestigious address and the amenities of small-town shopping within walking distance of the station: Soda fountain; shoe, boat and watch repair; drug store; newsstands; clothing; real estate; art; insurance.”
A worker “has dispensed a warm smile and service from behind one of the two postal windows at the Colee station for 16 years. He has watched kids grow up, go off to college and come back as teachers and lawyers.”
Rallying together
In 2011, reportedly facing a shrinking revenue base, the Postal Service considered closing the Colee station and five other offices in South Florida. Community members quickly rallied to save the office.
Robin Merrill, an artist and Christian minister, organized the rally back in 2012. Afterward, the Postal Service announced it would keep open all locations that originally were set to close.
At the time, Merrill’s nonprofit art gallery was located on buzzy Las Olas.
“We could walk to this post office and get all of our business done, instead of having to close up our shop for an entire hour and drive,” Merrill said.
Nowadays, chic wineries, mom-and-pop shops, clothing boutiques and realty firms alike dot Las Olas’ expanse.
Merrill worries for these businesses, and for online-only shops that rely on the post office for shipments and legal business addresses.
Kathryn Abreu, 32, is a regular at the post office. “My family all lives up north, so I always use this post office to send things back and forth,” said Abreu, who lives in the city’s Flagler Village.
As part of the upcoming closure, the Postal Service will transfer all services and P.O. boxes to the nearest office two miles away, the Alridge Station at 400 NW 7th Ave.
Colee’s patrons say Alridge, farther away, isn’t walking distance for them.
Howard Tescher, a resident who lives near Las Olas, said that as Fort Lauderdale continues to grow, it will still need a post office “that the people who live downtown and work downtown can walk to.”
Tescher owns a legal mediation practice in downtown Fort Lauderdale, and his business uses a Colee P.O. Box. He values how the small post office cultivates an “old town feeling.”
Stan Eichelbaum, 81, has held a P.O. box at Colee as the president of the Downtown Fort Lauderdale Civic Association. He said, “It’s a benefit to the restaurants. It’s a benefit to just about everybody.”
He treks to the station from his home along Riverwalk, the nearby waterfront district, and called it “a catalyst for getting people walking.”
Merill said that walkability should be a priority of the downtown area. “That was the whole point,” she said, “that you could walk to eat, walk to do your business — you do not need to get into your car.”
What’s ahead for 1404 E. Las Olas
In November 2025, Las Olas Friendship LLC submitted design plans for a new 24,000-square-foot Chabad Jewish Center. The proposal sets the building near the southwest corner of East Las Olas Boulevard and Southeast 15th Avenue.
The former Chabad Center was located just steps away, in the 1300 block of Las Olas.
Crush, who is representing Las Olas Friendship on the development, noted that the unit where the Colee post office sits is not part of the pending development application for the new Chabad Center.
The LLC “has temporarily occupied” a unit at 1404 E. Las Olas until construction of the Chabad is completed, Crush wrote in an email to the Sun Sentinel. “Future potential uses will be evaluated at that time,” he added.
A spokesperson for the city of Fort Lauderdale confirmed that the development plan for the Las Olas Chabad is still under review by the city. It will need to gain approval by another review board, the Planning and Zoning Board, the spokesperson wrote.