The building formerly housed the manufacturing operations of a baby bed company near Downtown on Murphy Boulevard, off GA 369. The building is undergoing a $1-million renovation, industrial brokers familiar with this submarket tell GlobeSt.com. Kipper sold its existing 30,000-sf plant site but didn't disclose the price.

In remaining in Gainesville, Kipper becomes part of a fast-growing Hall County sector whose population is spilling over from neighboring Gwinnett, just south of Hall. The county's estimated 175,000 population has grown 46% in the last 10 years, census records show. Atlanta area developers, constantly searching for larger and lower-priced tracts, only now are discovering Hall County's potential, area brokers familiar with the changes, tell GlobeSt.com.

For example, they say rural land that was selling for about $5,000 an acre 10 years ago is now commanding prices of $25,000 per acre and up. "It's only a matter of time before the national developers zero in on this area which is on the shores of nationally known Lake Lanier and at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains," an area chamber of commerce representative tells GlobeSt.com.