Postal Service employees who work at the Stamp Fulfillment Services (SFS) facility in Kansas City, MO, have a unique perspective on the world.
They work below it.
The facility is located inside the SubTropolis, an underground industrial park that Bloomberg Business visited recently.
The park, carved out of an excavated mine, is the size of 140 football fields.
The 270-million-year-old limestone walls keep temperatures at a constant 68 degrees, eliminating the need for air conditioning or heating.
The Postal Service occupies more than 500,000 square feet, which are used to store hundreds of millions of stamps.
SFS also manages stamp production and serves consumers who order stamps and philatelic products through usps.com, eBay and other channels. Additionally, SFS is the main stamp distribution point for all postal retail units.
Other SubTropolis tenants include archives that hold old IRS records and the original “Gone With the Wind” film reels.
What other tenants might be coming?
Underground real estate has been used to grow mushrooms in Pennsylvania and vegetables in London, but SubTropolis landlord Ora Reynolds tells Bloomberg Business he isn’t planning anything like that.
“For now, we’re trying to stick to what we’re good at,” Reynolds says.