A bank has shed a Sandy Springs office building it had seized from a borrower, a small but significant transaction in a distress cycle many investors say is just beginning.

Ameris Bancorp sold 5009 Roswell Road, a 36K SF building that is mostly vacant, for $6.9M to an unidentified buyer, according to a Bull Realty press release. Bull CEO Michael Bull brokered the sale for Ameris.

The sale comes months after Ameris foreclosed on the property, taking it over from an entity called 5009 Mana Petros SPE LLC for $6.9M. According to state records, the LLC is registered to an address associated with Richmond Honan Property Management, which couldn't be reached for comment and whose website was inoperable as of press time.

5009 Mana Petros SPE LLC purchased 5009 Roswell Road in 2019 for $10.5M, according to the Reonomy database.

“A 90% vacant office building selling for $191 per square foot illustrates office is not dead, despite the headlines,” Bull said in a statement. “We secured multiple offers ultimately choosing a well-qualified partial user.”

Bull didn't return calls as of press time.

The sale comes amid a sluggish sales market, as sellers are reticent to accept lower values and financing for office deals has been difficult to come by.

Aggregate office sales in Metro Atlanta fell from more than $4B in 2022 to $607M through the third quarter of this year, according to Avison Young.

The largest sale this year is Estein USA’s purchase of Three Ravinia, the pagodalike 817K SF office tower in Central Perimeter from Blackstone for $175M. Blackstone had paid $210.1M for the building in 2016.

But the environment has been fruitful for small investors, who see opportunities to acquire offices at a discount and possibly convert them to other uses, Bisnow previously reported.

"This is a great time to buy office properties below replacement costs," Bull said in the statement. "Tenant demand will come back faster than we think."