Development

ROCHESTER, MN-The architectural and engineering firm has tapped Gary Gray as head of the new office. The move is part of the firm's local focus, putting offices in areas where its clients are.

MINNEAPOLIS-The firm says its new offices in Dallas and Newport Beach, CA will serve a national client base and help attract new business in the housing, retail, commercial development, environments for aging, education and justice markets.

ORLANDO-The executive vice president for sales and travel operations at Walt Disney Parks & Resorts and his colleagues at the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau, are racing the clock to rejuvenate the area's sagging hospitality industry.

GILBERT, MN-The Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board, a regional economic development agency, will help Eagan, MN-based Delta Dental Plan of Minnesota finance and build a permanent 10,000-sf facility.

LINCOLN, MA-An affordable-housing development on land near the Minute Man National Historic Park, which is owned by the state highway department, would increase the town's affordable-housing stock and make it less vulnerable to developers with comprehensive permits.

ANN ARBOR, MI-McKinley Associates founder Ronald N. Weiser, developer of 20,000 multifamily units and 7 million sf of commercial space, is selected by President Bush to promote good will in Slovakia.

DENVER-Legg Mason's Glenn Mueller says the real estate cycle will benefit from population growth as a result of the Echo Boom. That means demand for housing as well as job growth, he says.

LOS ANGELES-Jeffrey Tamkin, president of Los Angeles-based Tamkin Development, tells GlobeSt.com that most colleges now see student housing more as a marketing tool for attracting new students to their campuses than as a sheer revenue generator.