ICE spent $200 million on two Georgia warehouses. Did the feds overpay?

But an overview of the local warehouse market by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution indicates that DHS likely did not meaningfully overpay for its real estate acquisitions in the Atlanta exurbs — though it will have to invest additional tens of millions of dollars to convert the warehouses, and make them fit for human habitation.

In this case, taking stock of broader market conditions is more fruitful than comparing DHS’ purchase prices to the publicly assessed values. That’s because the properties purchased by the federal government were not fully built out when tax authorities last assessed them, local authorities told the AJC.

Construction of the warehouses was only completed months before the sales.

“If the counties said their valuations were of incomplete buildings, I really think you have to throw them out. It’s not relevant,” said Julian Bene, a former board member of Invest Atlanta, the city’s economic development arm.

By the time of the DHS acquisitions, activity within Atlanta’s industrial real estate market had already been heating up following a sluggish period, especially among larger warehouses.

In a statement shared with the AJC, a DHS spokesperson said the government is “paying the fair market value” for the warehouses. Once operational, the warehouses will generate jobs and revenue for local economies, the spokesperson added.

Outdated assessments

In a recent video that amassed more than 4 million views on Instagram, liberal activist Jessica Craven addressed the sale of a sprawling industrial warehouse in Social Circle, a small city about 50 miles east of Atlanta.

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Capable of holding up to 8,500 detainees, the 1 million-square-foot warehouse was purchased by ICE for roughly $129 million. The property had been valued at $26 million in January 2025 by local authorities. The company that sold the warehouse to ICE purchased the vacant land for $29 million in 2023, records show.

Craven called the sale to ICE the “most egregious example” of the government overpaying to acquire warehouse space for immigrant detention.

“People are starting to ask legitimate questions about corruption,” she added.

The discrepancy between sales price to ICE and tax authorities’ value assessment has also been brought up in national media coverage.

According to Tommy Knight, chief appraiser for the Walton County tax assessor’s office, the assessed value for the Social Circle warehouse was low because the building “was not complete and a certificate of occupancy was not issued” at the time of its most recent assessment.

It is a dynamic that was also at play in the Hall County town of Oakwood, where ICE purchased two smaller warehouses for just over $68 million. Collectively, the four property tracts included in the sale had been valued by local authorities there at $7 million.

Natalae La Douceur, a Hall County official, said in a statement that the $7 million valuation reflects the price of the parcels of land and “some residential structures of nominal value” — not the warehouses ICE bought, which were built more recently.

“The full fair market value of the property won’t be assessed until 2027,” La Douceur said.

The price paid per square foot for the Oakwood warehouse was $126.14, strikingly similar to the $126.79 paid per square foot for the Social Circle warehouse.

What makes a warehouse valuable?

Credit: WSB TV

Credit: WSB TV

The value of any warehouse is tied to its size and capacity, as well as its location, with proximity to logistical hubs acting as a key differentiator.

“It’s all about the in and out,” said Barry Hersh, a professor at New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate.

B.R. White, Oakwood’s city manager, provided the AJC with a list of five warehouses that sit roughly within a mile of the site of ICE’s future detention center. Their price-per-square-foot value, as determined by the most recent county assessments, are $86.26, $102.80, $97.94, $92.41 and $101.94 — an average of $96.27, or about $30 per square foot less than the price paid by ICE.

And it has historically not been uncommon for commercial properties in metro Atlanta to sell for significantly more than their government-assigned value, according to previous AJC reporting.

Recent warehouse sales in metro Atlanta include private equity firm KKR & Co. Inc.’s acquisition in late 2025 of five industrial warehouses across Fulton and Clayton counties, at an average price of $134.01 per square foot.

Earlier this month, Amazon purchased a 1.1 million-square-foot warehouse in South Fulton — very similar in size to the Social Circle warehouse — for $129.8 million, also a similar price to what ICE shelled out. The price-per-square-foot there was $118.

According to recent reports about the performance of Atlanta’s commercial real estate market from CBRE and Colliers, two real estate services firms, the price-per-square-foot of other warehouses sold in metro Atlanta spanned from $90 to $179 — a range that would put the price paid by ICE close to the middle.

If ICE did pay a premium for its warehouses, it could be because the agency is in a rush to implement its new warehouse-based detention system and boost the number of detention beds at its disposal to 92,600.

As of early February, ICE had just over 68,000 people in custody. According to an internal planning document, the agency aims to “activate” all its new detention warehouses by Nov. 30, 2026.

“For ICE to sustain the anticipated increase in enforcement operations and arrests in 2026, an increase in detention capacity will be a necessary downstream requirement,” the document says.

Urgency on a buyer’s behalf can push prices up, professor Hersh said.

“If someone wants a building or a space immediately, they pay more because their choices are limited,” Hersh said. “You can’t say to them: ‘This building will be ready in six months.’ That’s not good enough for them. So, it limits their choices, and it does tend to drive up the price.

“You’re in less of a bargaining position. You’re going to pay more.”

The money ICE is spending in warehouses in Georgia and across the country comes from the One Big Beautiful Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump in July, which boosted ICE’s annual budget from around $10 billion to $85 billion, making it the country’s highest-funded law enforcement agency.

Knowledge of the massive resources at ICE’s disposal could have led the warehouses’ previous owners to push for higher prices, according to Bene.

“You’re flush with cash, buddy. We know you can afford it. You’re not going to nickel-and-dime us. We’re going to go for it,” Bene said of the mentality sellers can adopt when dealing with a particularly deep-pocketed buyer.

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

In its statement to the AJC, homeland security officials said that, for all of its warehouse purchases, appraisals are prepared in accordance with federal land acquisition standards — though experts have pointed out the agency has been tapping into a military procurement network that allows for more expedited processes.

Appraisals “are independently reviewed and approved by a government appraiser to establish the fair market value of the property and serve as the basis of our purchase price of the property,” the DHS statement says.

The federal appraisals have not been released publicly.

Additional big-ticket spending is looming for federal authorities, as converting industrial warehouses into habitable detention centers will be costly.

In Social Circle alone, plans call for a two-story facility with holding areas, gyms and recreational spaces, courtroom facilities, intake areas, cafeterias, laundry facilities, on-site health services and a gun range.

“It’s a huge price tag,” Hersh said. “All (they’re) getting are four walls, a roof, and a big concrete slab as a floor,” he added.