BOSTON-The Blackstone Group and Walton Street Capital sell Mellon Financial Center at One Boston Place to One Boston Place Real Estate Investment Trust. Industry sources tell GlobeSt.com that the selling price for the 41-story building was in the $260 to $265 million range.

ANDOVER, MA-John Fenton leaves Boston-based Berkeley Investments Inc. to start Essex River Ventures LLC. The new firm will focus on office, R&D and industrial properties in at least five strategic markets in the Northeast, mid-Atlantic and Southeast in the $5 million to $15 million range.

BOSTON-Communities Against Runway Expansion, a grassroots group opposed to the creation of a new runway at Logan International Airport, claims that Massport changed an independent report to overstate the proposed runway's delay reduction capability.

GREATER BOSTON-The numbers are in and they're not pretty. Spaulding & Slye Collier International's fourth quarter statistics for the suburban market indicate that the area continues to struggle to fill its excess space.

WALTHAM, MA-Availant, Inc., a software development company, relocates its headquarters from Cambridge, MA to 200 Fifth Ave. in the Prospect Hill Office Park. The deal is good news in a market that continues to struggle with high vacancy rates.

BOSTON-The Massachusetts Port Authority wants a private developer to build a 1.5 million-sf mixed-use development on 12 acres on South Boston's waterfront. As part of the project, the agency wants to see a hotel that will connect to the adjacent Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.

LEXINGTON, MA-Sensormatic Electronics Corp., a division of TYCO, decides to stay put at 70 West View St. in the Kiln Brook Office Park. The company, which develops electronic surveillance equipment, considered its options before renewing its lease here for five years.

HINGHAM, MA-The Erickson Retirement Communities project scores a win when the Supreme Judicial Court rules that the town's planning board cannot challenge the town's zoning board of appeals over the developer's comprehensive permit.