A New York-area investor has turned a Smyrna flex warehouse into a $27 million industrial bet, paying a premium for a property tied to major commercial tenants as Atlanta’s warehouse market regains its footing.
LM Real Estate Partners purchased the building from Berkeley Partners, Atlanta Business Chronicle first reported. The deal adds another sizable industrial asset to the investor’s growing Southeast portfolio.
According to Bisnow, the 154,000-square-foot shallow-bay property is associated with 3M and includes Lectra North America and StreamLabs Water as tenants. The acquisition closed at a 7% cap rate, with BankUnited providing nearly $20 million in financing that matures in 2030.
Cobb County property records show Berkeley Partners bought the property for $18.75 million in 2021, putting the latest sale more than 40% above that price. That kind of increase is notable for a flex-industrial building, particularly as investors continue weighing dependable occupancy against softer rents and elevated vacancy across the broader market.
LM Is Building An Atlanta-Area Industrial Footprint
The Smyrna deal is part of a recent Atlanta-area buying run for LM. The company’s portfolio records show acquisitions of a 412,805-square-foot flex property in Alpharetta in September 2025, a 99,750-square-foot cold-storage facility in May 2026 and the Smyrna building in July 2026.
LM says it was founded in 2015 and has acquired 22 assets totaling more than 5.8 million square feet, while currently managing 10 properties totaling about 3.9 million square feet. Its strategy centers on middle-market industrial properties across high-growth Southeast markets, with a focus on core-plus and value-add opportunities.
Metro Atlanta Industrial Deals Are Back, With Caveats
Metro Atlanta’s industrial investment market has picked up speed in 2026. Partners Real Estate reported that more than $1.1 billion in industrial sales closed during the second quarter, pushing the year-to-date total to $2.3 billion, an 83.3% increase from the same period in 2025.
The same report put average second-quarter pricing at $130.91 per square foot, while leasing activity reached 13.4 million square feet, the strongest quarterly total in more than a year. But vacancy stood at 9.1%, and average asking rents slipped to $8.91 per square foot, showing that the recovery is real without exactly being a victory lap for every landlord.
Earlier in the year, Partners’ Atlanta industrial report recorded 4.1 million square feet of first-quarter net absorption and more than $1.1 billion in sales, with national institutional capital accounting for over 75% of transaction volume. The Smyrna sale fits that pattern: capital is returning to Atlanta industrial real estate, but buyers are still favoring occupied, income-producing properties where the rent roll does some of the heavy lifting.
