Facilities Management

One of USPS’s greatest tangible assets is its real estate portfolio of approximately 33,000 building facilities, covering 280 million interior square feet. The goal of the Facilities group is to provide appropriate facilities for Postal needs and ensure proper stewardship of those building assets and related resources such as portfolio energy management, maximizing real property investments, continually balancing the real estate portfolio, and maximizing revenue from properties.

It is critical that we make efficient use of our building portfolio to support Postal operations and goals to Optimize Facility Footprint, Optimize Network Operations, Optimize Delivery Operations and Transform Access.

Facilities Optimization analyzes the existing processing, delivery and retail use of facilities and the needs in that location now and in the future. The strategic planning and analysis in these node studies allows the Postal Service to meet its goal to systematically consolidate operations and right–size our national facilities portfolio to yield substantial operational and lease savings, as well as to generate revenue through the sale of excess properties. Since beginning our optimization review efforts in 2009, we have reviewed over 4,000 facilities, resulting in the identification of over 600 buildings earmarked for elimination from inventory.

Tasked with selling and outleasing identified excess properties, the Real Estate Asset Management group collected $201 million in proceeds from rental and sales of facilities in FY2013 generating $178 million in revenue.

Real estate inventory

Inventory actions

*Total partial and complete property sales (does not include non-property sales such as right-of-ways/easements, sale of rights, defaults, installment payments, etc.)

The Facilities Implementation group supported the consolidation process by completing 29 new construction projects and over 30 other major renovations in FY2013. These projects enabled the Postal Service to combine multiple facilities into one location, shed square footage, move to less costly space or sell off large underutilized properties and move to smaller, more efficient space. The new construction category includes the build-out of preexisting non-Postal spaces (Alternate quarters or AQ), the expansion of Postal-owned space (Expansion), and the initial construction of new space that may be leased (NCL) or owned (NCO).

To ensure a safe, secure and serviceable work environment, existing Postal buildings must be consistently and reliably repaired. The USPS Facilities Repair and Alteration program incorporates proactive inspection and assessment programs together with dedicated response to incidents and emergencies. The employees assigned to this function completed about 50,000 repair and replacement projects in FY2013 to ensure that buildings continue to meet Postal needs affordably.