More corporations are turning to sale-leasebacks as an alternative for managing and financing the buildings they occupy. The upside—from unlocking the full value of the asset in a cash equivalent, to lease structures that qualify as operating leases so the expense stays off the company's balance sheet, to optimizing lease payments to keep rents lower—is too appealing for many corporate real estate users to pass up in the current economy.

Although sale-leasebacks aren't right for every company, billions of dollars worth of sale-leaseback transactions will close in 2014. These strategies may change and challenges are sure to arise, but industry watchers expect to see many corporations explore the possibilities of unlocking real estate value in what is still historically a low-interest rate and low cap rate environment.

“For companies with real assets that are linked to their long-term business strategies a sale-leaseback can provide a source of long-term capital that allows them to redeploy the value of that real estate in their core business,” says Jason Fox, managing director and co-head of Global Investments at W. P. Carey, a REIT specializing in corporate sale-leaseback financing, build-to-suit financing and the acquisition of single-tenant net-lease properties. The company announced record 2013 total investment volume at about $1.8 billion. “By selling a corporate facility to a long-term sale-leaseback investor, a company can retain operating control over the property while accessing the liquidity embedded in the asset.”