ATLANTA-The Oak Brook, IL-based retail REIT continues its shopping spree by picking up the 74,000-sf, 96%-leased Forest Hills Shopping Center from Atlanta-based IRT Property Co. for $6.6 million. IRT says it is negotiating more sales this year.

ATLANTA-A locally based partnership of Superior Building Co. and Martin-Marietta Aggregates has sold the vacant 24,000-sf former headquarters of the Mexican Consulate in Raleigh, NC to Raleigh Commercial Real Estate and Development for $635,000. The buyer plans a $500,000 renovation.

ATLANTA-The Brentwood, TN-based owner and operator of 61 hospitals negotiates to buy all but one of the hospitals owned by Memphis-based Methodist Healthcare. The package encompasses 676 beds at facilities in Brownsville, Dyersburg, Jackson, Lexington, Martin, McKenzie and Selmer.

PHILADELPHIA - The Johnstown, PA-based REIT pays Equitable Life $151 per sf for the 331,000-sf portion of the La Crosse, WI, center not owned by anchors Sears, Marshall Field's and Herberger's. Valley View's total of 587,000 sf includes a 35,000-sf detached strip center.

PHILADELPHIA-Michael D. Blunt is promoted to associate director of the financial services group at the local office of Cushman & Wakefield of Pennsylvania. He joined this office in 1995. Meanwhile, C&W expands a law firm's lease at One Liberty Place.

PHILADELPHIA-A "Mills Makeover" is in store for Cincinnati's 1.5-million-sf Forest Fair Mall. Arlington, VA-based REIT Mills Corp. will renovate the 12-year-old property to fit the "festive" format of its existing mall portfolio and rename it Cincinnati Mills.

ATLANTA-The Miami-based company has bought 77 Corporate Park, a 42.16-acre

ATLANTA-The former Saint Margaret's Hospital in Montgomery, AL, which lay vacant for 13 years, is undergoing a $28-million conversion into a new state criminal justice facility. The 400,000-sf building is expected to be completed by the end of 2003.