Postal Service Buys 65 Acres in Santa Clarita for Major Center

The U.S. Postal Service has agreed to pay Newhall Land and Farming Co. $26.8 million for 65 acres in the Santa Clarita Valley, where the service plans to build a giant mail-processing facility to serve northern Los Angeles County, company officials announced Tuesday.

The new “general mail facility” is scheduled for completion in 1993, said Ron Cook, a Postal Service spokesman. It is being built to relieve an overburdened postal facility at 15701 Sherman Way in Van Nuys, which serves as the main distribution center for the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys and portions of eastern Ventura County, he said.

With the explosive growth of northern Los Angeles County, the amount of mail in the region--which includes ZIP codes beginning with 913 through 916--has increased 84% in 10 years, Cook said. The Van Nuys facility handles 5 million letters and packages a day and officials predict that mail volume will grow 85% by 2005.

Cook said he could not confirm the purchase price of the property until the sale is final. But Marlee Lauffer, a spokeswoman for Newhall Land, put the price at $26.8 million and said the transaction was scheduled to close escrow April 1.

The property is a few miles north of Magic Mountain, west of the Golden State Freeway and north of California 126. The postal facility will be part of a 1,500-acre industrial park, Lauffer said.

Lauffer said Newhall Land initially would receive $2 million and collect the rest when the company completes grading and receives final county approval.

The project will include a 701,000-square-foot building to process mail, a maintenance facility for vehicles and a warehouse. Construction is set for 1991.

The Postal Service employs 1,850 workers in the Van Nuys facility and expects to hire more for Santa Clarita. The Van Nuys plant will be used for auxiliary processing.