By Linda Taaffe

The Los Altos Main Post Office on First Street is slated for major renovations that could include an expanded office area and underground parking with housing above.

Niles S. Tanakatsubo of Foster City purchased the property from Meiyan Enterprises July 19. White Tiger Properties LLC will develop the .98-acre site.

“Our plan is to update and modernize the existing postal facility, add additional office space and provide residential work-loft type housing above an underground parking garage,” said spokesman Wayne Aozasa, who grew up in Los Altos and has witnessed the city outgrow the 39-year-old facility.

The 12,500-square-foot building has never been renovated since the post office opened at the site in 1963.

“I’m really excited about this project,” Aozasa said. “We’re trying to develop a community benefit for years to come.”

The mixed-use project will be the first of its kind in downtown Los Altos and is something city officials had planned for the area in the city’s downtown urban design plan. The site is part of the Commercial Downtown zone, which allows for mixed-use projects.

Aozasa said the project is in the design phase. White Tiger is scheduled to submit formal plans to the city within 90 days.

The Los Altos Main Post Office was designated a first-class post office by the Postmaster General’s office in 1949.

Los Altos requires 17,000 deliveries six days a week, handled by 70-75 carriers out of the downtown post office and the Loyola Corners postal facility, a 20,245-square-foot building that opened in 1999.