JACKSONVILLE, FL-The city with the largest land area in Florida (759 square miles) and home of the largest privately owned commercial real estate firm in the state (St. Joe Co.) has shaved its combined vacancy level to 14.3% from a 2001 high of 17%, but a new report predicts full recovery is at least six months away.

ORLANDO-Thomas R. Kohler, executive director of the Downtown Development Board during the city's boom commercial real estate era, joins Bill Owens' Real Estate Research Consultants Inc. as senior vice president on Feb. 8.

ORLANDO-With U.S. Bankruptcy Court approval, the locally based timeshare operator has paid off loans and other obligations totaling $105 million to the Farmington, CT-based lender and anticipates its reorganization plan will be approved before year end. Sunterra had a debt load of $850 million.

ORLANDO-More consolidations and greater risk-taking face the industry, said James M. Murphy, chairman of the 2,800-member, Washington, DC-based Mortgage Bankers Association of America, at the 12th annual, commercial real estate finance/multifamily housing convention at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel.

ORLANDO-Commercial and apartment loans in 2001 totaled $73.8 billion, a 19% increase over the $62 billion posted in 2000, the Mortgage Bankers Association of America reported to 4,000 attendees at the 12th annual Commercial Real Estate Finance/Multifamily Housing Convention at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort.

ORLANDO-Mortgage Bankers Association of America reports the Kansas City-based, wholly owned subsidiary of PNC Financial Services Group posted $68 billion in 2001 commercial mortgage servicing. CapMark Services LP, a subsidiary of New York-based Lend Lease Real Estate Investments, logged $64.4 billion.

ORLANDO-More consolidations and greater risk-taking face the industry, James M. Murphy, chairman of the 2,800-member, Washington, DC-based Mortgage Bankers Association of America, tells 4,000 attendees at the opening of the 12th annual, four-day commercial real estate finance/multifamily housing convention at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel.

ORLANDO-The city ranked sixth in the nation in the first nine months of 2001, down from second place in 1999, according to a new University of Central Florida study by Dr. David F. Scott Jr. Las Vegas has led UCF's private construction intensity index since 1998.