(Natalie Keith is a contributing writer to GlobeSt.com.)

TROY, MI-Automotive supplier National Coatings purchased a 54,496-sf industrial building for $2.5 million operates its manufacturing division. The building, located at 1148 Rochester Rd., was sold by Avocet Investment, LLC.

Matthew Osiecki, James Dingeman and Mark Collins, of CB Richard Ellis Detroit, represented Avocet Investment in the transaction. Osiecki tells GlobeSt.com that National Coatings was leasing the one-story metal-panel industrial building from Avocet Investment but had an option to purchase it. The company manufactures specialty-coated papers, films and other products for digital color imaging and reprographics.

This is a positive sign in a market where "sales have been steady but not strong," Osiecki says. "Leasing has been slow because there is a lot of product on the market."

In the I-75 corridor industrial submarket, there was 77.5 million sf of space with an 8.29% vacancy rate at the end of 2005. There were other submarkets, however, that fared worse than the I-75 corridor with the Detroit submarket experiencing a 12.09% vacancy rate at the end of the year and the downriver submarket experiencing a 10.4% vacancy rate, according to a CB Richard Ellis industrial market report for the fourth quarter 2005.

In the I-75 submarket, there was 748,265 sf of lease and sales activity and 324,331 sf of construction activity for the year. The average asking lease rate was $6.89, according to the report.