ORLANDO-The country's largest employee-owned supermarket chain with annual sales of $13 billion is settling a court-filed action alleging 15,000 black workers were treated unfairly in hiring, firing and promotions over a seven-year period. Publix concedes the company violated its own rules but denies the allegations were based on race.

ORLANDO-Orlando NTC Partners expects to start a nine-month, $1 million infrastructure program in July on the prime 1,100-acre property in east Orlando. The developer anticipates breaking ground in mid-2002 on its planned $1 billion mixed-use development at the former Orlando Naval Training Center.

ORLANDO-Locally-based Birchwood Acres Ltd. is going with the Johnny Miller Design Group to build a championship-styled 18-hole layout at Harmony, a planned community of 4,784 residences and one million sf of commercial near Walt Disney World's 30,000-acre enclave.

ORLANDO-As predicted by industry professionals at the tail end of last year, multifamily investment activity here is slowing but nine-month activity shows higher dollar amounts posted in this year's deals to date, according to a new CB Richard Ellis Inc. study that will be published in January.

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, FL-ERA Breese Craft Hensley handled 226 townhomes and single-family transactions, averaging $90,000 per unit, since opening its doors in June in this Orlando suburb, 10 miles north of Downtown. The firm projects $50 million in 2001 sales.

ORLANDO-The 141-bed, 334,000-sf Health Central in bedroom community Ocoee, FL, eight miles west of Downtown, won't increase its bed count but will give doctors more office space and increase areas for laboratory and radiology services. Construction is slated to start in April.

ORLANDO-The four million-sf Orange County Convention Center is drawing more business travelers looking for newer inns with five star-like appeal, a commodity Orlando doesn't yet have. But 4,700 new hotel rooms in the construction pipeline may produce at least one lodge with the sought-after rating, analysts predict.

ORLANDO-Despite a so-so Christmas sales season, only three out of 12 submarkets are showing vacancies over 10%, according to a Grubb & Ellis Co. study.