SAB Capital Closes $41M Sale-Leaseback With Kreate on 550,000-SF Ohio Manufacturing Facility
TIFFIN, Ohio — September 2026 — SAB Capital has completed a $41 million sale-leaseback on a 550,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Seneca County, Ohio for plastics manufacturer Kreate, the firms announced. The transaction anchors a broader $100 million investment by Kreate into the site and its operations, with production at the Tiffin facility scheduled to begin October 1, 2026.
Transaction Structure and Lease Terms
Under the deal, Kreate sold the facility at 458 Second Avenue in Tiffin to SAB Capital and will retain long-term occupancy under a 25-year absolute NNN lease, with extension options providing for up to 40 years of total occupancy. The structure allows Kreate to monetize the real estate asset while maintaining operational control of the plant.
The facility — a former Ameriwood Industries and Dorel Home Furnishings plant — was acquired by Kreate Tiffin LLC prior to the sale-leaseback. SAB Capital's $41 million transaction recapitalizes that position, freeing capital for Kreate to deploy into machinery, infrastructure, tooling, and automation.
"U.S. commercial properties have historically appreciated at less than 4% annually, particularly in rural and secondary submarkets," said Bryan Huber, Partner at SAB Capital. "For manufacturers with product demand supporting returns handsomely above that, owning production facilities can risk constraining growth rather than supporting it. In Kreate's case, its order book committed through 2028 required 500,000 square feet of incremental manufacturing capacity. Monetizing owned production facilities in the SLB capital markets at a high-7% to mid-8% lease rate can redeploy that capital into productive capacity, protect delivery reliability, expand market share and drive enterprise value faster. The alternative is leaving capital earning less than 4% annually while concurrently encumbering the balance sheet and P&L with loan covenants and a mid-teens cost of debt."
Kreate's $100 Million Expansion Plan
Of the total $100 million investment, Kreate is directing approximately $69 million toward capital improvements at the Tiffin site. Those improvements include 32 new ENGEL injection-molding machines, robotics, autonomous guided vehicles, automated packaging systems, and Krevera's computer-vision AI platform. The integrated manufacturing system is designed to increase production speed, improve quality, reduce material usage, and minimize waste.
The project is expected to create approximately 120 jobs across skilled trades, manufacturing, engineering, robotics, automation, maintenance, and logistics.
The facility was selected for its scale, heavy electrical capacity, integrated rail spur, warehousing, and existing industrial infrastructure — characteristics that allow Kreate to bring new production capacity online significantly faster than ground-up development would permit.
SAB Capital's Rationale: Infrastructure Over Greenfield
"This is exactly where SLB capital can be most powerful," said Asher Wenig, Director at SAB Capital. "Kreate secured a difficult-to-replicate facility with the power, rail and infrastructure already in place, allowing the company to put its capital into machinery, automation and growth, instead of recreating the real estate. Kreate gets long-term control at a materially lower occupancy cost, and the investor gets an industrial asset at a basis well below replacement cost. That is a true win-win."
SAB Capital has framed the deal as a capital-efficiency play driven by three factors: Kreate's order book committed through 2028 requiring substantial incremental capacity, the speed advantage of retrofitting an existing plant versus new construction, and the ability to redeploy real estate capital into higher-returning operating assets.
Market Context: Industrial Sale-Leasebacks in 2026
The transaction arrives as the industrial sale-leaseback market is drawing increased investor attention toward functional assets — those with specialized infrastructure, single-tenant occupancy, and long-term net leases. Industrial supply is near 15-year lows, and investor focus has shifted toward functionality, location, and tenant use rather than broad-based pricing. The Tiffin facility's combination of heavy power, rail access, and warehousing positions it as the type of asset that fits that selective investment thesis.
For Kreate, the structure converts a relatively low-yielding real estate holding into operating capital at a time when the company's demand outlook requires rapid capacity deployment. For SAB Capital and its investors, the deal provides a long-term net lease on a manufacturing asset acquired at a basis below estimated replacement cost.