MOUNT VERNON-A section of downtown Mount Vernon has been approved by New York State as Westchester County's second Empire Zone. The designation could reap the city more than $280 million in new investment and create 1,790 new jobs.

BETHLEHEM, NY-Although several major energy power plant projects in New York State have either been cancelled or postponed due to the fallout from the Enron scandal, construction has begun on a $400-million facility in a suburb of Albany.

FISHKILL, NY-The $10 million Hilton Garden Inn Poughkeepsie/Fishkill located at 21 Westage Drive opened its doors for the first time on Tuesday.

STAMFORD, CT-A partnership controlled by New York City developer Larry Silverstein has sold the 360,000-sf Ridgeway Shopping Center here to Urstadt Biddle Properties of Greenwich, CT. for $89.3 million.

WHITE PLAINS-Five major development firms in the region will be competing to build a new medical research park on the Grasslands campus in Valhalla that could total as much as one million sf of new construction.

WHITE PLAINS-Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP is conducting a search for 50,000 sf of back office space in Westchester County and Northern New Jersey, GlobeSt.com has learned.

GREENWICH, CT-Broadway Real Estate Partners, LLC , a New York City-based commercial real estate investment firm, has purchased Pickwick Plaza, a 238,000-sf office complex here, for what sources say is about $115 million.

STAMFORD, CT-Robert J. Gold and Thomas Weinstock have left Grubb & Ellis' Office Services Group in Stamford and have moved several blocks downtown to become vice presidents with CB Richard Ellis' office here.