EL SEGUNDO, CA-Hawthorne Financial Corp. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire First Fidelity Bancorp in a transaction currently valued at $68 million, nearly seven times First Fidelity's 2001 net income and 158% of tangible book value of First Fidelity Bancorp.

ORLANDO-Sitting near the edge of a planned $1 billion, 20-year Downtown redevelopment program, the 72-year-old structure, vacant and ravaged by squatters for years, is being demolished this week after a Saturday fire gutted the interior of the 100,000-sf property.

SEATTLE, WA-Over the last few months, experts have been predicting that economic recovery from the recession could begin as early as the second quarter. For the landlords of Puget Sound's offices, where vacancies continue to rise, it won't come soon enough.

MIAMI--Orlando-based CNL Retirement Corp. pays $28 million or $108,527 per unit to one of the nation's largest providers of senior living and health care services. One of the properties is in Coconut Creek, FL, Broward County, 35 miles north of Downtown Miami.