ORLANDO-Lee Chira, president, Lee Chira & Associates and Leila Nodarse, president, Nodarse & Associates Inc. are on the nine-member, state-appointed panel that will help blueprint the first $1.3 billion phase of Florida's long-planned, high-speed train system scheduled to break ground in 2003.

ORLANDO-Second-quarter vacancies are up from 10.9% in the first quarter to 12.4% overall, the highest in five years, a new analysis by Grubb & Ellis Co. shows.

ATLANTA-Unable to find a buyer since June 1999 for its 71-acre, undeveloped Sugar Loaf 85 tract in suburban Duluth, GA, the Everett, WA-based aircraft manufacturer is taking the listing contract away from Grubb & Ellis Co. and giving it to CB Richard Ellis Inc. Boeing is asking $23 million or $323,944 per acre ($7.44 per sf) for the dirt.

ORLANDO-Dissatisfied with the lack of charity-giving choices, David A. Siegel, chairman of Central Florida Investments Inc., the largest independent vacation rental owner in Florida, is starting his own foundation that will be funded by volunteer contributions from his 5,000 employees and at least 1,000 vendors and suppliers.

ATLANTA-The three central business district submarkets, however, are solid with a second-quarter occupancy level of 93.19% versus an average 89.01% leased mark among the 13 suburban pockets, according to a new analysis by Richard Bowers & Co.

ATLANTA-Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association is negotiating in the area of $80 million ($138.89 per sf) for the combined 576,000-sf Concourse 1 and Concourse 11 near the 21.9 million-sf Interstate 285/GA400 submarket.

LEESBURG, FL-Commissioners unanimously voted to annex a 3,443-acre cattle pasture that is zoned for four million sf of industrial; 1.3 million sf of commercial; 5,320 multifamily units; and 10,102 single-family, two-family and triplex units. Some residential activist groups argue the project is too large for a small city (Pop. 15,624) to manage.

ORLANDO-Locally based Hunter's Creek Charter School Inc. pays the Dallas-based developer an estimated $1.05 million or $70,000 per acre for a 15-acre parcel to construct a $7 million, 700-student classroom project in the 4,000-acre Hunter's Creek community of south Orlando.