The U.S. infrastructure market must drive institutional investors nuts. Here is a sprawling investment opportunity laid out in the richest country in the world. A market packed with all types of institutional-sized assets and projects in a broad range of sectors that would kick off attractive yields for decades. But then reality sets in.

Far from a single market, the public control of these assets results in a highly fragmented market with such high levels of political vagary that private investors find it near impossible to consistently win and execute projects. Each deal — along with all the typical deal challenges — resides in its own world with a unique regulatory and political climate. There are efforts being made on many levels to address some of the issues caused by such a jumble of jurisdictions. But it is this idiosyncratic — and ultimately risky — landscape that has kept P3 project volume relatively low.

Mary Scott Nabers, president and CEO of Strateg