Beverly Hills Valet Service Licks Postal Parking Problem

You step out of your car and hand your keys to the valet, crisply attired in white shirt and black tie. You pass through the smoked glass door and stroll across the gray carpet to the counter. You buy a book of stamps.

Welcome to the new Beverly Hills Post Office.

Today was the first day of business at the new office, which shares a two-story building with the XIV Karats Ltd. jewelry store. Haskell Faber, who owns the building and runs the store, leases the ground floor to the Postal Service for $20,000 a month.

The valet parking is provided by the jewelry store for its customers, but since postal customers are using the same lot, they can take advantage of the service.

“The valet parking was our conception,” said Faber’s son, Bruce. “It’s an added extra for the post office.”

Having the attendant park your car costs 50 cents for the first 20 minutes if you get your ticket validated at the post office. After that it’s $4 an hour.

It doesn’t cost a cent in tax money, Postmaster Koula Fuller noted.

Faber said he paid $3.1 million to renovate the building. The plush gray entryway carpet with a Postal Service eagle emblazoned on it was provided by Faber, Fuller said.

She estimated about 1,000 customers enter the Post Office daily and there are also 2,200 post boxes, with only 50 parking spaces for jewelry store and postal customers and employees.

Post Office customers who choose not to use validated parking can search for a parking space and pay a meter on crowded Beverly Drive.