The U.S. Postal Service’s plan to sell the building at 1140 Wall St. that has housed the La Jolla post office since 1935 has some thinking about what can be done to maintain the status quo. “The idea is to somehow find the funds to buy the building,” said Joe LaCava, a La Jolla Community Planning Association trustee. “We could keep the post office in front and find a use for the other end. They could sell the building and negotiate a lease.” The Postal Service is looking to sell the building and lease a new facility within a mile of the current location, according to Eva Jackson, USPS spokesperson. The move won’t affect the 92037 ZIP, P.O. box numbers or hours of operation, she said. CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) has been retained to handle the real estate transaction. Jackson said the Postal Service needs only about half of the building’s 14,451 square feet. “The building is underutilized, but we still have to maintain it, heat it and cool it. We need a location with only 6,100,” she said. Until 1975, the building housed letter carries and retail, Jackson said. Carriers were then moved to an annex on Silver Street. Reporting a net loss of $5.1 billion last year, the post office could raise much-needed capital by selling the corner-lot building. To return to profitability by 2015, the Postal Service must reduce its operating costs by $20 billion. Marc Lipschitz, broker for Prudential, who has 22 years of commercial real estate experience, estimates the value of the property to be $2.5 to $3 million. But, he added, “It is difficult to place a value or premium on what an owner, user or developer would pay for this unique opportunity in the village.”  The Postal Service expects to have its official appraisal on the property in March. “That gives us some time,” LaCava said. “The discussion is what should be the strategy [to buy the building]. The feeling is we have enough stores and restaurants, here’s a different kind of facility that has a civic use.” Cathy Hammond, who has had a post office box for 34 years, said she believes the building will be sold in no time, “Unless they ask too much money,” she said. But she’s still lamenting the fact that the facility may be gone. “It’s such a quaint part of the village,” she said. “What would they do with this building? This block is old and established. To put something high and modern here would not fit in.” John Christofferson, managing partner of Latte by the Sea, a coffee stand across the street from the post office, said he is concerned about how sale of the building would reduce traffic and customers for his business. “If they put a Ferrari dealership here and 10 people show up a day, it will be so much different,” he said. In 2010 when the U.S. Postal Service marked its 75th anniversary, the La Jolla Historical Society attempted to get the building listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a plan the Postal Service backed. However, a combination of time constraints and the assessment of the building compared to others seeking designation stopped the application. Diane Kane, a retired senior planner with the San Diego’s Historical Resources Board, was involved in the process and believes today the building would qualify for the historic register. Built in 1935 by the U.S. Treasury Department of Public Buildings under the supervision of architect Louis A. Simon, the building was expanded in the 1960s, changing the lobby and doubling its size, Kane said. “Stacked up against small original post offices, La Jolla didn’t make the cut [for the historic designation],” she said. Additionally, the “Scenic View of the Village” mural by Belle Baranceanu that winds around the lobby walls wasn’t considered artistically significant. The final criterion to obtain the designation was to show how the post office helped developed La Jolla’s downtown. While Kane said that could be demonstrated, there wasn’t enough time to document the facts before the 75th anniversary. “If we can get historical designation now, the building could be sold with a restrictive covenant,” Kane said. “It’s an invaluable community treasure and we need to keep it as a public building.” With no police substation or fire station in the heart of the village, the post office is, for LaCava, the last of a dying breed. It’s the workhorse of daily life that gets little to no attention until its possible demise, he said. “It’s interesting what issues really get people excited,” LaCava said. “Not policy, but common things that touch everyone’s lives, like pot holes.” And the post office.