By summer, those who rent postal boxes downtown will be picking up their mail somewhere else.

The U.S. Postal Service doesn’t know where yet, but assures it will be downtown.

Being sought is a business to provide postal services on a contractual basis.

The development, announced to box customers at the Crawford Street facility on Friday, signals a continuing transition for the five-story U.S. Post Office and Courthouse building constructed in 1935 and privately owned for the past three years.

Vicksburg Postmaster Fannie Smith said the move will occur in 30 to 60 days. She wasn’t sure how many customers still use the downtown facility, but apparently they will get to take their box numbers with them.

&#8220They are not being closed but they are being relocated,” Smith said.

The downtown building was Vicksburg’s only postal center until a new main building was opened in 1992. Many individuals and businesses moved their postal business to the new operations center.

Since then, the downtown facility has seen reduced hours and declining use and has been threatened with closure several times.

The stone-fronted building, one of the business district’s largest, was also home to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. District Court and National Weather Service employees. Over the years, all relocated except the remaining postal workers and federal court personnel, who use the building a few days each year.

Smith said the contract operator will provide all services now available in the Crawford Street facility.

&#8220We are looking for several spots,” Smith said, &#8220and it will be in the downtown area.”

She said customers would be advised. &#8220We will let them know in plenty of time” she said.

Delta Court LLC purchased the building after the City of Vicksburg declined to accept the deed. &#8220We have a development project in the building,” said Shirley Waring, president of Delta Court since June.

She said she has a general contractor and a local contractor who will work on the building.

Although Waring said she does not have a beginning date for the work, she said when work begins it will start with remedial and selective demolition.

The building encloses 71,864 square feet of space and is far more ornate than modern office buildings. Doors and fixtures are brass, as are myriad decorative sconces. Floors are marble and feature mosaics.