Gasco Real Estate Holdings has made its way into the Alpharetta office market, and JLL's Paul Hanna is giving them a hand. (We know what West Virginians will be thankful for next week.)

Gasco Real Estate Holdings picked up Westside Center, a 60,500 SF office building off Westide Way in Alpharetta for $7.4M, or $122/SF. Paul (here), with JLL's Katie Elliott and Shan Gastineau, helped Realco affiliate Gasco purchase it from Ackerman & Co. Realco's Jennifer Portz tells us the firm liked the Alpharetta location: “With 88% occupancy, there is upside potential,” she says. Stream Realty will manage the building.

The three-story office building was picked up by Ackerman in 2012 for $5.8M from a fund sponsored by Morgan Stanley. Back then, occupancy hovered in the low-80%, says Ackerman's Kris Miller. The firm renovated it and added high-profile tenants, including VT Group and REACH Health. Transwestern's Kevin Markwordt brokered the deal for Ackerman.

Since we had Kris on the horn, we asked him about the Atlanta economy. He's upbeat, a big change in tone from someone who has been especially frank in the past about the pain of the Great Recession. He sees the future as “very bright” over the next 36 months as Atlanta's population continues to blossom, consumer sentiment improves and jobs are created: “These are the things that drive commercial real estate demand.”

Activity at the firm's Abernathy 400 site, which recently partnered with Cousins Properties, is also up as tenants find fewer existing office spaces in Central Perimeter. That has driven prospects to the firm's former MARTA site off Abernathy Rd and GA 400. Kris tells us the JV is in "serious discussions" with six tenants, after a dozen formal requests.