At first, it looked like another financing deal was about to fall through for Burr & Forman partner Patrick J. Clarke.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. had initially considered providing a $12 million construction loan for the new Sandy Springs headquarters of freight-forwarding company JAS WorldWide Management LLC. Clarke was to be outside legal counsel to JPMorgan on the transaction. But, at the last minute, because of the global credit crunch and other factors, JPMorgan dropped out, leaving the project in the lurch.

“I thought, ‘Another one bites the dust,’” said Clarke, who said that he’s seen a significant number of construction loans fall through in recent months.

JPMorgan never signed a term sheet for the loan and wasn’t formally committed to provide the financing, Clarke said. But a couple of weeks later, Colonial BancGroup Inc. gave Clarke a call. The Montgomery, Ala. banking company wanted to know if Clarke was available to advise on a financing project—the $12 million JAS WorldWide construction loan. Clarke accepted the assignment and the deal closed this month.

JAS WorldWide is a U.S. Federal Maritime Commission-licensed freight forwarding company that’s engaged in the business of air and ocean shipping, said the company’s outside counsel, Arnall Golden Gregory partner H. Bruce Jackson. JAS WorldWide conducts operations in about 100 countries. For the past three years, JAS WorldWide has been gradually moving its global headquarters from Milan, Italy to Atlanta.

The new corporate campus, which will be located on Barfield Road, will include three buildings and house the headquarters of JAS WorldWide and affiliated companies, including its U.S. operating subsidiary, JAS Forwarding Worldwide, Jackson said. JAS WorldWide will eventually station about 300 employees at the campus.

As for Colonial BancGroup’s construction loan, it was a transaction that bucked the recent trend of banks being skittish about floating loans, Clarke said.

“It’s not that banks don’t want to lend,” said Clarke, who said his practice is “95 percent” representing lenders. “It’s that there is just not a lot of projects for banks to lend on.”

As for JPMorgan, the bank wasn’t completely left out of the loop. Clarke advised JPMorgan on two separate loan-assumption transactions with JAS WorldWide. Those deals involved real estate properties that JAS WorldWide owned in Georgia and Illinois.