ORLANDO-The vacancy level has dropped to 16.4% from 18 % in the second quarter but with projected annual net absorption of only 200,000 sf, it will take six years to absorb the 1.1 million sf available in the south Orlando service center and flex space market, according to a new study by Rebman Properties Inc.

TAMPA, FL-The Oak Brook, IL-based retail REIT pays $162.96 per sf in a $12.9 million deal with Shoppes of Lithia Ltd. to acquire the newly constructed, 79,161-sf Shoppes of Lithia in Brandon, a Tampa suburb. The per-sf price is one of the highest this year for a retail property, area brokers tell GlobeSt.com.

ATLANTA-The Oak Brook, IL-based REIT pays $10.7 million for the 67,721-sf Shoppes of Ellenwood in Ellenwood, GA and $5.2 million for the 60,799-sf Houston Square in Warner Robins, GA.

ORLANDO-After two years of sliding revenue, Orange County's 120,000 hotel and motel rooms generated a total $93.3 million in room taxes for the county's fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

ORLANDO-Harris Rosen, Florida's largest independent hotel owner with 10,000 rooms, tells GlobeSt.com he will be appealing an Orange County Circuit Court ruling which denied his claim for a lowered tax assessment on 230 strategically located acres in the area's tourist corridor.

ATLANTA-For the nine months ended Sept. 30, the locally based apartment REIT posted a net loss of $3.1 million, or a loss of eight cents per diluted share, compared to net income of $39.6 million, or $1.07 per share, for the comparable 2002 period.

CLERMONT, FL-The Bentonville, AR-based retailer plans to break ground in first quarter 2004 on a $20-million, 203,214-sf supercenter, 10 miles away from an existing store in south Lake County. The new store will have 450 job openings.

CLERMONT, FL-Lake County plans to close a deal next week for 20 acres at $2.2 million, or about $2.53 per sf, in one of the most land-expensive areas of the county near the new South Lake Hospital. The county is buying the land from the hospital.