Why American Infrastructure Partners Is Targeting America’s Postal Facilities for Modernization

The U.S. Postal Service delivers to nearly 169 million addresses, operating more than 31,000 retail offices and other facilities nationwide. But in December 2024 testimony to Congress, then–Postmaster General Louis DeJoy described facilities in “dilapidated condition” and cited “$20 billion in deferred” maintenance.

Bob Hellman, CEO of American Infrastructure Partners, believes private capital could help meet this need, arguing it is more agile and efficient.

“Unlike traditional mega-infrastructure projects, social infrastructure assets are highly localized,” he wrote in a recent essay. “Social infrastructure assets are often too small for the largest global infrastructure funds, which prefer multi-billion-dollar projects for capital efficiency. The average transaction size for social assets falls in the $10 million to $200 million range. That requires investors to execute multiple smaller deals, often through regional partnerships.”

Who Owns the Buildings?

USPS runs a mixed real-estate system: it owns more than 8,500 facilities and leases more than 25,300 spaces. In practice, that split creates two lanes for capital. Work at owned sites often competes with national priorities and annual budget limits. Leased sites can sometimes move faster under the terms of a commercial lease, especially where a private owner can finance upgrades and amortize them across renewals. USPS itself underscores the scale of its leased buildings with a regularly updated inventory of leased properties. 

Private Capital and Post Office Repairs

American Infrastructure Partners has built a dedicated postal platform, American Postal Infrastructure, one of the largest portfolios of post offices and logistics real assets in the country. Its goal is to use private capital to efficiently address the scale of the aging post office problem. 

API currently owns and is supporting over 870 post offices across 48 states and Puerto Rico. Its strategy is built on the idea that logistics and postal facilities are essential last-mile infrastructure, where private ownership can fund upgrades that improve basic building systems and support operational shifts. 

Hellman argues that traditional appropriations won’t close infrastructure gaps on their own. In a June 2025 essay he wrote, “the public till is empty,” and that private infrastructure can be “a powerful economic stimulant without swelling public debt.” In that framing, postal facilities are a natural fit: essential, networked, and revenue-backed, but too often starved of capital for basic modernization.

Repairing Rural Facilities 

The condition issues are not limited to big metro plants. OIG audits over the past decade have documented ventilation, roofing, and safety deficiencies at a range of mail-processing and retail sites, with preventive maintenance gaps showing up repeatedly. 

DeJoy was blunt about the state of many post offices; congressional oversight records and USPS releases highlight the maintenance overhang, particularly in older buildings in rural areas that were never wired for today’s electrical or IT loads. 

What Private Ownership Can (and Can’t) Do

Private capital has the ability to finance upgrades and spread costs through long-term leases at leased sites, or through sale–leaseback structures at owned sites if policymakers go that route. But it’s not a substitute for public oversight or for the universal service obligations that make the network what it is. Clear performance metrics, lifecycle maintenance plans, and transparency are as important as the funding source. 

Nevertheless, there is a documented maintenance backlog. USPS confirms that thousands of facilities need upgrades, and that deferred maintenance has reached roughly $20 billion. In that environment, the question isn’t whether private infrastructure investors can help; it’s where and how, under contracts and guardrails that protect service standards while moving essential building work forward.