The walls are up, the roof is covered and the floor - 50,000 square feet of smooth concrete - has cured.

The only thing missing at Columbia County's new spec building in Grovetown is an industrial tenant, and officials are confident they won't be waiting long.

Three companies have already toured the property off Wrightsboro Road, while a fourth, an auto industry supplier, inquired about the building before construction even began, said Zack Daffin, the director of the Development Authority of Columbia County.

"This is the only spec building in a 13-county region," Mr. Daffin said. "There's very little inventory out there."

Spec buildings, short for "speculative" buildings, are bare structures that a company can inexpensively customize to fit its needs.

"About 70 to 80 percent of companies want an existing facility," Mr. Daffin said. "This is a needed tool for us."

Officials said prospective tenants could range from companies that supply the nearby John Deere and GIW Industries factories or an entirely new industry.

The $2.5 million project in the Horizon South Industrial Park is a partnership between the Development Authority, Kuhlke Construction, the building's general contractor, and commercial real estate firm Atkins & Associates, which is helping market the property as a light manufacturing facility or a warehouse/distribution center.

The public-private approach is a departure from the county's previous spec building, a 128,000-square-foot structure (currently occupied by a John Deere supplier) that was financed solely through bonds. The county's stake in the current building was financed with federal grants and no-interest loans.

"Depending on how this goes, the county could make a profit instead of just breaking even," said Bill Kuhlke, the chairman of Kuhlke Construction.

Final interior work and landscaping at the property will be finished before the end of the month. The building's investors say the structure is already more finished than the typical spec building, some of which have dirt floors.

The Horizon South building can be customized and ready for occupancy within six weeks of a signed lease or purchase contract.

"That's really a whole lot sooner than most spec buildings," said Tony Atkins, the president of Atkins & Associates.

Mr. Daffin said work on a new spec building would begin quickly if the current one is leased or purchased sooner rather than later.

"I would love to have a revolving spec building program," he said.