“Commercially, you hear a lot about troubled assets and properties going back to the bank and potentially low-value short sales,” Ray Stache, a senior director in the Industrial Transaction Services group at Cushman & Wakefield in Atlanta, tells GlobeSt.com. “But in Atlanta this is the first note sale of its kind that occurred with a property of this size. That makes it unique.”

The note sale may be unique, but industrial buildings for lease in Braselton are not. Although leasing activity has picked up in Braselton’s industrial market compared to a year ago, Sealy still has plenty of competition in the local market.

Sealy is employing an aggressive lease-up program to bring the building to full occupancy within the near term, but Senkbeil did not disclose the details. Although he admits that slow leasing velocity and competition will present challenges, Senkbeil is optimistic about the lease-up prospects of the LEED certified building.

“It’s highly unlikely that there will be any new speculative buildings built any time in the near future,” Senkbeil says. “There may some build to suits. But you’d have to have a substantial increase in rents before new buildings are built. That gives about the best timing we could hope for.”