PORTLAND-The submarket with the region's lowest vacancy rate, 4.2%, is the Port's 9.9-million-sf Rivergate Industrial District, which not coincidentally also has the most speculative construction underway.

CHICAGO-Stepping in where insurance companies fear to tread, Secretary Mel Martinez says terrorism coverage is not required on loans backed by Federal Housing Authority multifamily mortgage insurance. "HUD will now pay the claims to the lender," Martinez tells the Mortgage Bankers Association of America convention.

LONDON-Kier Property has won planning consent to redevelop the headquarters of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in Whitehall.

FOLSOM, CA-The second phase of Opus West Corp.'s massive Broadway Plaza is acquired by a private investor from Denver. Opus West says it plans to invest the profits in other Northern California locations.