HOUSTON-Vantage Cos. welcomes a furniture sales and distribution company and a HVAC distributor to its Beltway 8 Business Park. The furniture company takes the bulk of the industrial space, 34,531 sf.

THE WOODLANDS, TX-The national care-care center buys about 1.2 acres at the Woodlands' Sterling Ridge Village, a 130,000-sf shopping center that's practically filled to the brim with in-line retailers and pad site tenants.

HOUSTON-Tech Systems racks up the largest lease, 13,000 sf, at Equity Office's 208,000-sf Northborough Tower near the Bush Intercontinental Airport. Also getting a new tenant is Lincoln Properties Co.'s Frost Bank Building.

HOUSTON-A squeeze play on second-tier malls and a part owner's retail play appear to be the final blows for Town & Country Mall in West Houston. A retail analyst and confidential industry source tell GlobeSt.com that a shutdown looms.

HOUSTON-Holm Bambace McCabe exits 1301 McKinney and heads for 1010 Lamar, both CBD locations. The firm takes 7,839 sf at the 19-story, 264,885-sf office building owned by Koll Bren Schreiber Realty Advisors.

HOUSTON-The non-profit Hispanic Housing and Education Corp. takes a second mortgage on its 534-unit Las Americas, an innovative model for affordable housing. The 30-year loan bears an 8.63% interest rate with a 29-year amortization.

MONTERREY, MEXICO-It will be another year of good fortune for Monterrey despite the US recession, says a Grubb & Ellis analysis. Second- and third-tier support industries for the maquiladora base are poised to take up most of the available three million sf.

HOUSTON-The firm of Frank E. Mann & Associates is making plans to move into 4,586 sf in a 51,530-sf office building strategically positioned inside the Loop and just west of Houston's CBD. The new deal pushes occupancy to about 85%.