PHOENIX-A limited liability company gets a five-acre holding with enough room to add 40,000 sf to 50,000 sf. For now, the plan is to put in a beauty school as the neighbor to a 16,000-sf state tenant. When the state's lease expires, the plan changes.

STAFFORD, TX-Tokyo-based Kobe Steel stays put at the Freeport Southwest Business Park, a 12-building industrial project on 235 acres. The tenant has occupied the structure since it was built five years ago.

PHOENIX-The Birtcher Family Trust of Phoenix finds a "star" buyer for a 44,144-sf, three-year-old office building along N. 28th Avenue in Phoenix. The buyer is one of Phoenix's favorite "Suns.

THE WOODLANDS, TX-The Woodlands neighborhood edges toward its build-out with construction of a luxury apartment complex. Houston-based Easterling Development buys the needed 14 acres and preps for a ground-breaking.

PHOENIX-Greg Maestas is on board at Perini after spending nine years with Dunham Associates. Among Maestas' duties will be to scout the nation for business opportunities as Perini's director and research market trends.

PHOENIX-Nine months into a lease at the Fifth Street Industrial complex, Goodrich expands its initial 37,745-sf signing. The extra space will be used for a repair station for aircraft evacuation slides, life rafts and vests.

HOUSTON-Absorption comes in at 397,985, but that's not counting the 40-store shutdown by Albertsons and an 11-store closure by Kmart. Absorption and vacancy are sure to start dipping in the second or third quarter, says O'Connor & Associates.

HOUSTON-The city's office market hits its lowest point in nine years, with 12 of 19 submarkets posting negative absorption. Rents are falling and sublease space is rising. Enron accounts for 675,000 sf of 881,872 sf of empty CBD space.