ATLANTA-The balance sheet news wasn't all bad for the Birmingham, AL-based retailer as it reduced its debt by $287 million to $1.34 billion and borrowed nothing under its $700 million revolving credit facility in the fiscal quarter ended May 4.

ATLANTA-Sunrise Medical of Carlsbad, CA is taking the space for five years at the spec-built, 283,756-sf Building H at the 250-acre Chickasaw Distribution Center in the Southeast/Airport submarket of Memphis, TN. The lease is valued at an estimated $1.37 million.

ORLANDO-Mark Peterson, a former Applebee's International vice president/controller and chief accounting officer, joins locally based Grace Venture Partners which is branching out from its $20 million technology fund.

ATLANTA-The 150-store NorthLake Regional Mall is scheduled to open by fall 2005 at an estimated hard construction cost of $240 million or about $200 per sf, area construction industry estimators tell GlobeSt.com.

MIAMI-Brokers Walter K. Robinson and Edward P. Lyden sign three tenants to three-to-five-year expansions, renewals and new space totaling 145,825 sf with an estimated aggregate rent value of $4.75 million.

MIAMI-Net income for the fourth fiscal quarter ended March 31 totaled $3.7 million, up 27.2% from $2.9 million in the same period a year ago.

ORLANDO-Column Financial Inc. of Atlanta is providing an 80% loan-to-value, 30-year amortized permanent funding package to Dewberry Capital Corp. of Atlanta, founded by former Georgia Tech University quarterback John Dewberry and his brother Douglas in 1989.

ORLANDO-Royal Realty Co. of New York defaulted on a ground lease, paving the way for entrepreneur Gary G. Thorp to acquire the 16-story, 128,000-sf, class B structure in an Orange Circuit Court foreclosure suit.