The federal government said no to a Kingsport offer to buy the downtown post office building.

News 5 learned the city offered the United States Postal Service $300,000 for the building. That's about one million dollars less than the asking price.

City manager John Campbell told News 5, he was hoping to use the building as extra classroom space for their downtown academic village.

Even though Campbell said he wasn't surprised by their rejection, he believes the offer was a fair one. "We had a pretty good idea of what it costs to do the renovations in the building, even to a standard for college students where it allows for wider spaces and not breaking up the building as much, and so we felt like it was a fair price given the price it was going to cost to renovate the building," Campbell explained.

We're told for now the city will not counter with another offer, but another private college is looking at the space as a potential buyer.