From Burlington Mail Terminal to Commerce Village and Cafe Postale

950 S 10th Street, Boyd Jones Construction, Burlington Mail Terminal, Burlington Station, BVH Architecture, Cafe Postale, Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad, Commerce Village, National Register of Historic Places, Rail and Commerce Historic District, Resumo LLC, Saro Cider, Sips on 10th, Union Station, United States Postal Service, W.T. Krausch, Warren Distribution

January 18, 2024

To the west of the Neo-Classical Revival masterpiece that is the former Burlington Station sits its mail terminal, a building that spent a large portion of its life crumbling under the stress of neglect and disuse.

Recently renovated, the Burlington Mail Terminal sits on the southern end of the 10th Street Bridge. Built in 1926, it was designed in the Daylight Factory style by architect W.T. Krausch of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.

The west end of the Burlington Mail Terminal. Courtesy of Durham Museum.

The five-story building at 950 South 10th Street features reinforced concrete frames, massive steel sash windows, and open floor plans designed to maximize natural lighting for increased productivity and ventilation. The 96,000-square-foot structure was built specifically so that the railroad could secure a contract to deliver mail by train for the United States Postal Service. Aside from its unusual triangular shape, which allowed it to run parallel to both the road on its southern end and the railroad tracks on its north, are the dozens of large windows on all four sides.

The tracks that ran through the northern end of the lower level allowed mail to be unloaded easily. Inside, the building featured catwalks so that postal inspectors could keep a watchful eye on the employees processing the mail below. Those same inspectors used an enclosed brick staircase, allowing them to move from floor to floor without being noticed.

Looking at the south and east sides for the Burlington Mail Terminal. The narrow end of the building is facing 10th Street. Courtesy of Cafe Postale.

Even with the construction of a new main post office to the west, the mail terminal continued to operate as a mail sorting facility until 1972. After that, most bulk mail moved to a new train service that delivered mail between Chicago and Oakland. Despite the change, the Burlington Mail Terminal continued to serve as a storage facility due to the usefulness of the conveyor belt system that once took mail back and forth to the new post office. Vacated by the mid-1990s, an out-of-town developer unsuccessfully planned to turn the building into 71 luxury apartments in 2007.

Aerial photograph of the Burlington mail Terminal with Burlington Train Station (KETV) across the 10th Street bridge and Union Station (Durham Museum) on the left.

Long abandoned and continuing to deteriorate, the building was saved in 2015 when it was purchased by developer Resumo LLC and renovated by Boyd Jones Construction. Upon its reopening in 2017, it was renamed the Rail and Commerce Building. At the time, it was one of the largest historic tax credit projects in the state. The building takes its new name from the 19-block area south of the Old Market that consisted of large-scale commercial warehouses sitting along or near the railroad tracks. That district was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

The north side of the Burlington Mail Terminal before it was renovated. Courtesy of PJ Morgan Real Estate.

The developer said its goal was to take an old building and make it new again while preserving whatever they could. The renovated building includes modern amenities, conference rooms, open and naturally lit work areas, and a fitness center, in addition to game and break rooms. It also features an old postal chute that once was used to drop mail to the lower levels, with a hole cut through it allowing people to pass through. The large windows allow light to pour in while providing unique views of the train station-turned-news station as well as the surrounding Rail and Commerce Historic District. Another notable aspect is that the building with rooftop solar panels strives for zero waste and is environmentally sustainable.

Looking towards the renovated Burlington Mail Terminal building with Cafe Postal facing 10th Street.

Located within the building is Commerce Village, a co-working community open to startups and entrepreneurs, providing access to desks and office suites available for rent. The ground floor also features Cafe Postale, whose entrance facing 10th Street simply reads “Cafe.” Its location allows for an abundance of natural light in addition to an outdoor patio, and it offers views of the observation area where inspectors once stood. The coffee shop serves both breakfast and lunch while transforming into an event space, including weddings and corporate events, in the evenings.

Today the Rail and Commerce Building stands as one of the city’s most successful adaptive reuse projects in a growing corridor that includes new businesses such as Saro Cider and Sips on 10th, as well as the grand old train stations that now operate as a museum and a news station. That’s a remarkable transformation for a building that saw millions of pieces of mail pass through it.

Please feel free to comment and share your memories. Thank you for following along as I explore Omaha and the surrounding area!