SAN FRANCISCO-Bay Area apartment vacancy edge up further in the first quarter and average rents decline, but there are still plenty of buyers in the market, according to the latest quarterly report from Marcus & Millichap.

SEATTLE-Don Milliken tells GlobeSt.com that the office tower planned for the $200-million mixed-use development at Denny Way and Westlake Avenue North will become a boutique hotel tower if preliminary plans are approved by the project's majority partner, Vulcan Inc.

SAN FRANCISCO-The Memphis, TN-based owner and developer of self-storage facilities is selling off the properties individually. Several of the properties are already under contract, according to the broker who won the disposition assignment.

LAS VEGAS-Following opposition from MGM Mirage, the Orlando, FL-based developer cans its use permit application for a 54-story, 750-room tower, chops 11 stories from the design and resubmits for approval. The planning commission is scheduled to consider the use permit in May.

BERLIN-Upon its completion in the summer of 2005, Viterra Development GmbH will sell the hotel to SEB Immobilien-Investment GmbH, a German open-ended fund. Germany-based Maritim has been selected to operate the property.

SEATTLE-The Quality Food Center division of The Kroger Company is nearing a Master Use Permit to redevelop a one-plus-acre site at 39th and Stone Way with 26 town homes and a 35,000-sf grocery store sandwiched between two levels of parking.

FOSTER CITY, CA-The California Teachers Association takes 20,055 sf on Hatch Drive in a 37,000-sf building that has been vacant for two years and Formation Inc. takes 10,300 sf in Metro Tower, the waterfront city's most prestigious building.

ALBUQUERQUE, NM-Cook Inlet Region Inc., an Alaskan real estate holding company, sells the Broadbent Business Park to a joint venture of Newport Beach, CA-based Bedrock Foundations LLC and Irvine, CA-based Granite Industrial Partners LLC that plans to subdivide the property into individual parcels and sell them off to users and investors.