The recent trend of rising insurance costs, influenced by natural disasters and inflation, is a key concern to all real estate investors. Coupled with the increasing costs of building materials and a strained property reinsurance market, property owners who grew accustomed to single-digit increases over the past decade are suddenly facing premium increases of 20% or more. Owners of properties leased to the USPS face additional challenges due to the unique usage of their properties. In an earlier blog post, we discussed the impact of Amazon relying on local post offices for much of th ..read more

You may have read or heard the recent news about a potential government shutdown. What is a government shutdown, and what does it mean for my post office? What is a government shutdown? One of the responsibilities of Congress is to fund the government. The House and Senate must agree on how to fund the government, and the President must sign the legislation into law. Sometimes, Congress does not agree on the federal budget or appropriations bills for the upcoming fiscal year, which results in the temporary closure of nonessential offices of the federal government (and the withholding of pay to ..read more

As you may have heard, Congress recently passed the Postal Service Reform Act with overwhelming bipartisan support, shoring up the agency’s finances for years to come. In addition to its financial implications, we found several additional areas of the legislation interesting: Elimination of $57 billion in past-due liabilities of the USPS’s retiree health benefits fund The USPS is no longer required to pre-fund health benefits for its employees, which led to past-due liabilities (estimated $27 billion in savings over the next 10 years) Future USPS retirees will be required to enroll ..read more

If you’ve noticed an uptick in EMCOR repair requests for your post office recently, you’re not alone. Many postal lessors have seen a spike in repair requests, often for items they aren’t used to hearing about from their facilities.  At least part of the answer is “Gemba.” Commencing in 2017, the Postal Service embraced a workplace improvement initiative referred to as a “Gemba” Assessment. “Gemba” is a Japanese leadership technique that requires managers to walk through a workplace to identify opportunities for improvement. The Postal Service concentrates on evaluating what they refer to ..read more

From May 21st – May 24th, executives from Postal Realty Trust attended the National Postal Forum held in Charlotte, NC. The NPF is the premier mailing and shipping conference that works directly with the United States Postal Service to provide the industry’s most comprehensive educational and networking platform.  For Postal Lessors, the NPF was an opportunity to understand the evolution of the USPS delivery network under the Delivering for America plan, the Postmaster General’s ten-year roadmap for placing the Postal Service on the road to financial sustainability. Attendees heard f ..read more

The Postal Realty Team descended upon Las Vegas last week, but we weren’t there for the roulette tables. No, our team came to the Neon City to attend the 2023 AUSPL Conference, the largest annual gathering of Postal Lessors. Postal Realty was the principal sponsor of this year’s conference. We joined nearly 400 other Postal lessors at the historic Flamingo Hotel to learn about the latest developments in the industry and offer our expertise to fellow Postal owners. Keith LaShier, AUSPL President and SVP of REAC Among the highlights of the three-day conference: Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, fo ..read more

The USPS has been working to modernize its delivery network as part of the Postal Service’s Delivering for America Plan. A significant component of this transformation is the repurposing of Processing & Distribution Centers (P&DCs) into new Sorting & Delivery Centers (S&DCs). Delivery Updates Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced the Delivering for America plan in March 2021. This is the USPS’s comprehensive ten-year plan to achieve financial sustainability and service excellence. USPS will reinvest on a vast scale to establish a network of new ..read more

As e-commerce continues to grow and dominate the retail industry, Amazon has become one of the most significant players in the market. With its vast network of fulfillment centers and delivery vehicles, Amazon has revolutionized the way we shop online. However, this has also brought about new challenges for postal facilities and their lessors. Amazon relies on the Postal Service for a significant portion of its last-mile deliveries. With many facilities receiving daily pallets from Amazon, one of the primary concerns for lessors of postal facilities is the increasing number of A ..read more

Anyone with a strong understanding of logistics knows that “last-mile” delivery—the last leg of a delivery from a transportation hub to the final destination—is the most challenging and expensive part of the process. The USPS has the largest and best-developed last-mile delivery network in the world, providing a meaningful competitive advantage in the package delivery industry that is relied upon by all of the major retailers. In fact, as Andrew mentioned in his latest blog, The USPS’s Unmatched Logistics Network Is the Backbone of E-commerce, and the growth of e-commerce is in large part made ..read more