LOS ANGELES-Cushman & Wakefield snatches five top pros from competitor Lee & Associates, the latest salvo in a war for the best brokerage talent in Southern California's red-hot real estate market.

ORLANDO-The Florida Supreme Court wants the state's voters, not special-interest business groups, to decide a high-speed rail system issue. For the second time in a week, the court has rejected a move to take the bullet train measure off the Nov. 7 ballot. Developers and landowners are monitoring the issue closely because hundreds of acres of rights-of-way land would be needed to build the bullet train project.

AUSTIN-Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. is bullish on Austin's 23-acre Research Park Plaza, signing its second lease in a month for back-to-back building projects that will deliver in summer 2001. The company will occupy all of the 358,000 sf under construction.

CHICAGO-The nation's largest diversified industrial REIT meets third quarter expectations, with per share FFO rising 9.4%. Executives are predicting the trust will now deliver earnings and return on assets that are among the best for pure play industrial REITs, while analysts say returns are likely to be closer to the average.