AUSTIN-Vignette Corp.'s $539-million net loss for last year and 150-employee layoff may stall development plans in the downtown. The city still plans to make good on its $25-million incentive package if Vignette can proceed with the project, says an Austin insider.

AUSTIN-Online health-care Web site, drkoop.com, is headed back to California, shuttering its Austin office after only 15 months. The decision puts 35,000 sf of office space back on the market.

AUSTIN-Wal-Mart and Burpee will pay a tad more than $4.4 million for two asset groups of Austin-based Garden.com. The five-year-old company's 34,871-sf of office space also is up for grabs as a result of the previously announced shutdown.

AUSTIN-GE Capital has acquired the 106,946-sf first phase of Stassney Heights Shopping Center as the developer, Trammell Crow Co., gears up to start work on the balance of the second phase. Three restaurants already are under construction.

SAN ANTONIO-AutoTradeCenter says it's taking a $650,000 hit on a multi-property sale, including a San Antonio site, but it's going ahead with the deal anyway. AutoTradeCenter says it wants out of all land-based operations by year's end.

AUSTIN-Four Trammell Crow employees, representing a combined 62 years of commercial real estate experience, have been promoted to principals in the Austin office. Promotions have gone to Jamil Alam, Becky Heston, Charlie Northington and Kelly Shaw.

AUSTIN-In the past month, more than 700,000 sf of office space has come back to the market from the state capital's failing or downsizing dot.coms. Other tenants are quickly grabbing the spots through sublets, but the impact can't be dismissed.

AUSTIN-Earful of Books, an audiobooks chain from Austin, is headed to Oregon for the first leg of its expansion. The company will open three stores in the next 18 months in Oregon, a new market, and has 31 under contract in its existing lineup of states.