Office

LOS ANGELES-The publishing house giant Hachette Filipacchi Media has expanded its Los Angeles office across from the Wilshire Courtyard office complex. The company has signed a five-year, $1.6-million agreement for 12,500 sf.

AUSTIN-Dana Friis-Hansen steps into the lead role for the Austin Museum of Art after serving for some time as interim executive director. With the job comes the task of pushing a 145,000-sf project that has hit roadblocks with the down economy.

CAPITOL HEIGHTS, MD-Hampton Overlook office/flex space complex and Hampton South Business Centre warehouse sell for a combined $12.4 million to AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust.

LONG BEACH, CA-American Residential Investment Trust has entered into an arbitration agreement with Long Beach Mortgage Company (LBMC). On Jan. 4, 2001, the company had filed a lawsuit, seeking to recover damages arising from its purchase of a pool of residential mortgages from Lehman Capital, a Division of Lehman Brothers Holdings.

NEW YORK CITY-The 81-year-old law firm will join 125 other legal practices at the 55-story tower near Grand Central Terminal.

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.

SAN DIEGO-The San Diego chapter of BOMA has elected its new board of directors. Cybele Thompson, RPA of PM Realty Group and general manager of the La Jolla Executive Tower, will serve her second term as president.

LOS ANGELES-National commercial real estate services firm Studley has completed an office relocation deal for Salomon Smith Barney and represented Charter Communications in a build-to-suit purchase of an office center.