OAK BROOK, IL-Great Lakes REIT posts a 7.7% increase in first-quarter funds from operations in spite of three vacancy-plagued properties. The office buildings are in the East-West Corridor, north suburbs and northwest Milwaukee.

BOLINGBROOK, IL-Learning Curve International will move into a 325,057-sf industrial building at 800 S. Naperville Rd., now owned by a White Plains, NY-based investor who paid nearly $25 million for the Remington Lakes Business Park.

ROSEMONT, IL-Lease deals for 68,629 sf are signed in the 14-building AMB O'Hare Center at Balmoral and Pearl streets. The deals are completed by Trammell Crow Co. vice president Thomas P. Wagener, SIOR, CCIM.

DENVER and ARLINGTON, VA-Archstone Communities and Charles E. Smith Residential Realty form the second-largest apartment REIT in the US and fourth-largest overall pending shareholder approvals. Both focus on high-barriers-to-entry markets.

CHICAGO-Mark Goodman & Associates Inc.'s new 18-story office tower in the West Loop has lagged behind most other Downtown office developments despite offering Class A amenities and a location convenient to commuter rail stations.

CHICAGO-Failure to keep his Rogers Park apartment house in order, as well as make court-ordered repairs, lands six-flat owner Marek Galen in jail. City officials say the building was a haven for gangs and drug users.

CHICAGO-Transwestern Commercial Services did $2 billion in property sales and financings but gets stronger by picking up financial advisory firm Julian, Toft & Downey, Inc., involved in a multitude of high-profile lending deals.

NILES, IL-The REIT and financially troubled promotional products company HALO Industries are discussing restructuring the $6-million-a-year lease on a recently-built 267,344-sf office building at 5800 W. Touhy Ave.