PINEVILLE, NC-The 52-year-old Dick's Clothing & Sporting Goods chain has bought a seven-acre site for $2.9 million or $414,255 per acre ($9.51 per sf) just south of Charlotte for the first of five planned stores. The first 45,000-sf unit will open next summer. The site housed the former Cedar Springs Hospital.

RALEIGH, NC-The deal ranks among the largest national office property transactions this year, according to locally-based Highwoods Properties Inc. The REIT is contributing $7.5 million of developable land to one of the ventures. GE Capital Real Estate will be funding up to $276 million for the various projects.

ORLANDO-U.S. District Court Judge Patricia C. Fawsett gave Patrick T. Lee the maximum sentence because he engineered the 18-year scheme to defraud the federal Customs Service and for lying at the trial. Lee owns the 500,000-sf Mid-Florida Freezer Warehouses Ltd. In Port Canaveral, FL, 60 miles southeast of Downtown Orlando.

ORLANDO-The Indianapolis, IN-based REIT is selling its estimated $43 million, fully-leased office/industrial North Florida portfolio because the area isn't large enough yet to handle the developer's delivery system.