COLUMBUS, GA-In a challenging and complex transaction, Atlanta-based NewBridge Retail Advisors' managing partners Gary Saykaly and Van Barron negotiated for Oaktree Capital Management of New York in the estimated $20.8-million sale of the Cross Country Plaza.

HEATHROW, FL-Stirling International Realty founder and owner Roger Soderstrom hires David L. Bass to beef up the firm's regional division which is shooting for $125 million in property sales and leasing transactions this year.

LITHONIA, GA-Wachovia Bank sells a total 25,840 sf in six locations in Georgia and Florida for $4.8 million or about $187.40 per sf. The Jenkintown, PA-based REIT plans to re-sell or lease properties. Five are vacant; one is occupied by BB&T Corp.

ORLANDO-The largest publicly traded commercial real estate company in Florida has sold its one-year-old Florida Metropolitan University building at SouthPark Center in south Orlando to locally based JYP Investment LLC of for $12.6 million.

ATLANTA-Atlanta Urban Residential Finance Authority's $5.5-million multifamily series 1997A and $500,000 series 1997B, issued for the Evergreen Village Estates project, is now rated BB and B, down from BBB and BB. S&P also downgraded bonds in DeKalb County and East Point.

ORANGE CITY, FL-Locally based AB&S LLC paid $310,000, or $100,000 per acre, for a 3.1-acre site in nearby Deltona, FL where the 21,800-sf Howland Professional Plaza is planned. Easi Investments of DeBary, FL paid $250,000, or $34,104 per acre, for a 7.4-acre site in Orange City, FL. An office-industrial facility is planned.

ALBANY, GA-An affiliate of Norfolk, VA-based Harbor Group International LLC sells the 165,384-sf, $96.6%-leased property to HL Libby Corp. of Warrendale, PA for $8.4 million, or $50.49 per sf.

LEESBURG, FL-Jim Hartman, a Winter Park, FL entrepreneur, bought the 80-year-old property 45 miles northwest of Downtown Orlando for an estimated $2 million. The property has been under Chapter 11 protection since September 2003. Lenders were waiting to foreclose on the property.