SALEM, MA—North Carolina-based Bell Partners Inc. has increased its multifamily portfolio in Greater Boston to five properties totaling approximately 1,100 units.

NEW YORK CITY—The latter firm has tapped its new appointee as a managing director of small loan operations.

NEW YORK CITY—A new report that tracks two-dozen such properties in Manhattan says hedge fund buyers are shelling out big bucks in terms of per square foot prices, and have seen a spike in average "high asking rents

BOSTON—Paced by a robust warehouse market, the industrial real estate market in Greater Boston has absorbed more than 2 million square feet of space in the past year. The region's industrial market posted its fifth straight quarter of positive absorption in the third quarter.

BOSTON—Equity Residential reports that it has received neighborhood support from more than 1,100 West End residents on the latest revisions to its proposed $350-million tower project at the Garden Garage project site here.

NEW YORK CITY—Officials from New York and New Jersey announced a critical agreement that will help finance the construction of the multi-billion dollar Amtrak Gateway Tunnel project.

PORTSMOUTH, NH—Veteran hotel executive and broker Kenneth Wayne Ford has died from complications following a recent automobile accident.

BOSTON—With approvals in hand, officials with John Hancock say they hope to break ground on the insurer's $350-million office tower project sometime next year.