LAMORINDA WEEKLY | Old Moraga Post Office To Become a Warehouse


The old post office on School Street will soon be a warehouse for Beauty Republic. Photo Andy Scheck

The Moraga Planning Commission recently approved the transformation of the old post office at the corner of Country Club Drive and School Street into a warehouse. About eight people will work there and not much additional traffic is anticipated.

Song Chae Yun owns the building across from Si Si Caffé on one side and the Moraga Unified School District Office on the other. It used to be Moraga's second post office but was closed when the U.S. Postal service cut costs and has been vacant ever since.

Yun is the owner of Beauty Republic, a beauty products company with retail stores in the Bay Area. Hayoung Lee, the architect who was representing Yun at the May meeting, said that the owner's first intent had been to open a retail store in Moraga, but that zoning of the property would not permit it. The building is located in a suburban office zone of the Moraga Center Specific Plan.

The commissioners' questioned the type of administrative and storage business proposed by Beauty Republic. The site is a 17,424-square foot lot, and the one-story building itself is 5,483 square feet. Lee confirmed that it would be oversized for what is intended.

The traffic generated by Beauty Republic would consist in one delivery to the site every two weeks, and rotation of stock between the local stores in Emeryville and San Ramon twice a week. The impact was estimated to be much less than the previous use when the site was a post office. Lee added that internet sales could possibly be managed from the site.

The commissioners noted that Moraga was not positioned well in the Bay Area to become a warehouse hub, and added that this business would probably bring no additional revenue to the town. The use was compliant with local regulation and unanimously approved.