Second postal site in Berkeley for sale

July 9, 2012 11:54 am by Frances Dinkelspiel

An aerial view of 1150 Eighth Street. The post office has put the vacant lot next door to the processing  facility on the market for $2.3 million. Photo: Google Earth

The historic post office on Allston Way is not the only postal service property for sale in Berkeley.

Officials have placed a 2.2-acre vacant lot at 1150 Eighth Street up for sale for $2.3 million. The lot, which sits next door to the postal services’ main processing facility in Berkeley, can accommodate an 85,000 square foot building, according to a USPS website.

The property is being listed by Cornish & Carey Commercial.

The listing of another site up for sale comes about two weeks after news came out that the postal service planned to sell Berkeley’s Main Post office on Allston Way. That building is a historic 1915 Renaissance Revival structure, modeled on Filippo Brunelleschi’s Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places, where its listing states the work “symbolized the city’s coming of age”. It also contains a WPA mural by Suzanne Scheur depicting early Berkeley history.

The post office is planning to find another retail location in downtown Berkeley, according to USPS spokesman Augustine Ruiz, Jr. The mail sorting functions now done at the Main Post Office will move to the processing facility at 1150 Eighth Street. The property for sale is right next door to that, said Ruiz.

Nils Moe, an aide to Mayor Tom Bates, said the mayor’s office had not yet been informed that the Eighth Street lot was for sale. Bates issued a press release last week pledging to try and bring the Main Post office building back on the property tax rolls.

“While the sale is some time away, my goal as Mayor is to maintain this beautiful building both internally and externally,” Bates wrote.   “If the building has to be sold, my goal is to put the building back on the property tax roll while maintaining the lovely interior and functioning postal services.   I also want to make sure that the public is guaranteed access to the interior of the building and especially to the 1936 mural that depicts figures from California’s Spanish and pioneer history. ”

The Main Post office has not yet been officially listed for sale. At least eight other properties in the Bay Area are listed.

The vacant lot for sale at 1150 Eighth Street. Photo: Google Earth

The postal service has warned for years that it is on the verge of financial collapse. The US Senate passed a rare bipartisan measure in April that would give the USPS $11 billion to offer buyouts and early retirement incentives for its staff, and to pay down some of its debt. Executives of the postal service hope to cut $22 billion in costs by 2015. Last year, USPS delivered 168 billion pieces of mail, down from 202.8 billion pieces a decade ago.

22 Comments

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  • The Sharkey

    Not the best part of Berkeley (no offense), but that seems like a great deal for 2.2 acres, depending on zoning.

    Maybe the Warm Pool advocates can secure private funding to buy the land and build the pool of their dreams there.

  • Alan_Tobey

    “property tax roles” suggests somebody’s just posing here . . . .

  • The Sharkey

    Hard to tell. But I can’t think of any reason why the USPS would want to keep the empty lot @ 8th Street. Have they ever used it for anything? It’s been an empty field as long as I’ve been in Berkeley.

  • Gus

    Sadly, recreational uses are prohibited in the MU-LI zone, unless it’s a public park, which it ain’t going to be. No housing either. 

    Technically, under recent amendments to zoning ordinance, it could be office space or R&D. But buildings in the MU-LI are still limited to 2 floors and 45 feet in overall height; it’s certainly easier to put up buildings appropriate for these types of uses elsewhere. 

    So I think the most likely use, if anything, would be recycled materials processing or an alternative fuel depot. I’m sure Mary Lou Van Deventer and Dan Knapp, Ph.D., are keenly interested in this listing. An Urban Ore North…

  • jjohannson

    That’s a great piece of real estate, one that has been an eyesore for years.  I can see Safeway blowing off the Solano remodel and going big here to challenge Whole Paycheck.

  • Completely_Serious

    I hate the Post Office (but I love my mail carrier). The USPS is complicit with the banks, the corporations, the CEOs and the Trilateral Commission.  It facilitates the delivery of checks, mortgage statements, foreclosure notices, car payments, etc.  Based on the pure numbers, the USPS sends more collection letters to the 99% than the 1% combined. 

    The USPS is also known world wide as a promoter of hatred of dogs, even cute puppies and labrador retrievers.

    I say, OCCUPY THE UNOCCUPIED PARCEL OF VACANT LAND AT 1150 HARRISON STREET, BERKELEY.  (Just downwind from the transfer station.  Yum.)

  • Just Sayin

     le yawn.

  • Guest

     What is a “property tax role”?

  • Petsitter101

    Oh and what is the best part of Berkeley The Sharkey?  One that has more affluent folks maybe such as yourself?  Being a West Berkeley resident and homeowner for almost 30 years, I actually am offended at your snarky remark.  And, I also work at Griffin Motorwerke which just moved from San Pablo Avenue to their new digs across the street from the PO’s vacant lot at 1146 6th Street.  You might remember the warehouse where Odwalla used to be.  We love our new location and hope we will be a nice addition to the neighborhood. There are lots of interesting places down there so don’t be afraid to come down to the not so nice area, you might be pleasantly surprised.

  • Mbfarrel

    It’s a great part of Berkeley. Home to high end speed shops and specialty auto repair. Welders and “artisanal” dirt under you nails work. 

  • Mbfarrel

    A homeowner.

  • Mbfarrel

    Is your carrier Angel?

  • Alan_Tobey

    Your daily trivia:  when I Google-mapped the address to look art the neighborhood context I was charmed to see San Pablo Ave. labeled “Lincoln Highway”   — America’s first transcontinental road, dedicated in 1913.  More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Highway.  I guess, as with Route 66, that great highways never die.

  • The Sharkey

    I guess I should have been more specific — All I meant is that it’s not well-situated along a major public transit corridor like BART and isn’t ideal for new mixed-use housing development (which is usually easier to find funding for than business development) since it’s in a semi-industrial part of town that doesn’t get a lot of foot traffic and is mostly warehouses like you mention.

    Gus points out some of the other possible problems with the space. Whoever buys it is probably going to be stuck in Zoning Hell for a while after they make their purchase.

  • The Sharkey

    I meant that in terms of distance to/from public transport, and foot traffic for retail. That specific area has always been deserted when I go by, but maybe that’s just because it’s a big empty lot.

    If the out of town Occupy folks who are harassing the Albany City Council succeed in blocking the Whole Foods in Albany, maybe they can buy this lot and put a grocery store there.

  • The Sharkey

    Don’t give them any ideas!!!

  • Gus

    Except that general food product stores are also prohibited in MU-LI zones. In fact, pretty much all retail uses are prohibited in MU-LI.

    The lot is relatively cheap because you can’t really put anything useful on it.

  • Gus

    One of the criticisms of Bates’ land-use policies is that he has been too accommodating of uses that are exempt from local property taxes. For instance, had LBL chosen to put its new lab in West Berkeley, as a state-owned entity, it would have been exempt from local property taxes.

    The USPS, as a federal agency, does not pay property taxes on the Main Post office building. “Putting it back on the property tax roles” means selling it to a private owner who would be liable for local property taxes on the building.

  • Charles_Siegel

     No, that would be “putting it back on the property tax rolls.”

  • Gus

    D’oh! Man, everything from Alan’s comment on clearly flew miles over my head.

  • Mbfarrel

    U.S. Highway 40

  • Michael McCutcheon

    As a neighbor to this property, I would note that it has been for sale for many months.  The PO originally bought the whole block for something like $5-6M, then put their processing facility on part of it.  The land, trees and grass have been neglected for years.  Does have the creek on the North side, which is very cool.