Apparently, people are still eating, bathing, wearing and washing clothes and brushing their teeth. While that's good news in general, it's a big bonus for Atlanta's industrial market as high-credit food and consumer products companies pounce on a weak market to cut costs through consolidation and take advantage of unprecedented rates.

Colgate-Palmolive is the latest domino to fall, taking the entire 743,951-square-foot Building A at IDI's WestPoint at Riverside development in Lithia Springs, Ga., near Interstate 20. Mike Chambers at NAI Brannen Goddard represented Colgate-Palmolive, while IDI's Lisa Ward represented ownership. Both declined to comment.

Colgate-Palmolive's lease, which closed near the end of 2009, followed Kraft's fourth-quarter '09 deal to take 960,000 square feet at Majestic Realty's Airport Center III, where Carr Carothers and Stan Conway represented ownership while Cushman & Wakefield's Ray Stache represented Kraft. These two blockbusters may mark the beginning of an onslaught of big industrial deals.

According to our sources, apparel giant Phillips-Van Heusen, Clorox, Proctor & Gamble and Cargill are all kicking tires for at least 500,000 square feet of metro Atlanta industrial/distribution space, while rumors concerning Bed, Bath & Beyond and Amazon logistics requirements circulate as well.

Corporate users' desire to cut costs and consolidate operations dovetails with Atlanta's status as the Southeast's logistics hub. The current crop of high-credit tenants also see opportunity in record low rates - metro average $3.38 triple net at year end - 20% vacancy and dismal 2009 net absorption of negative 4.7 million square feet, according to Jones Lang LaSalle. The next round of big-box users will have to go the build-to-suite route and face higher rates, as speculative industrial construction has dried up, said Paul Roeser, vice president of Jones Lang LaSalle. Also, with corporate logistics consolidation, Atlanta is usually the winner at the expense of secondary markets, a landlord-side leasing pro told us.

"Your well-capitalized, name-brand companies are taking advantage of the market," Roeser said. "It's the classic rich-get-richer scenario. With these large blocks of space, it's a great opportunity."

C&W's Stache said he's tracking approximately 20 500,000-square-foot-plus transactions in different stages of progress on the Atlanta industrial radar where there were two or three this time last year. It's a welcome relief, especially after the past 12 to 18 months.

"That's pretty darn significant," Stache said. "That can certainly change the Atlanta big-box landscape."