ATLANTA-The 103-year-old Seattle-based retailer signs a letter of intent with shopping center owner Simon Property Group to take over the 135,000-sf spot Lord & Taylor is vacating Feb. 8 in the affluent Buckhead, GA hub.

WINTER HAVEN, FL-Polk County commissioners vote Jan. 21 to raise its 4% tax by a penny on hotel rooms and short-term rental homes. The projected annual revenue would be $850,000, or $3.4 million, for the four-year term of the special tax, enough to close the county's $2.5-million portion of the deal on the park's 30-acre botanical gardens.

WINTER GARDEN, FL-The St. Petersburg, FL-based developer has filed preliminary plans with the Orange County planning department for a 1.3-million-sf retail complex that would be built on 175 acres at County Road 535 and State Road 429 in this Orlando suburb.

ATLANTA-The Toronto-based life insurance company pays an affiliate of Deutsche Bank Real Estate close to $8.1 million for the 120,000-sf, four-year-old, 100%-leased Merck Building at 1645 Satellite Blvd.

ATLANTA-PSI Group, a subsidiary of Stamford, CT-based Pitney Bowes, is taking 66,254 sf for five years at an estimated aggregate rent of $1.7 million at Airport West Distribution Center. Mohawk Industries is leasing 50,669 sf for five years at an estimated total rent of $1.3 million at 2375 Button Gwinnett Dr. in the northeast Atlanta submarket.

TAMPA, FL-Highland Hospitality Corp. of McLean, VA pays $124,000 per room for the 238-room property located in the corporate-oriented Westshore business district, five minutes from Tampa International Airport.

ORLANDO-The Birmingham, AL-based developer received an average $229,230 per acre for 29 prime acres at Colonial Center at Heathrow in suburban Orlando; 28 acres in nearby Sanford, FL; and eight acres of outparcels in Birmingham and Mobile, AL.

ATLANTA-The 67-year-old,locally based full-service commercial real estate and mortgage firm also selects Bob Mathews as president and Caldwell Zimmerman as executive vice president in a general corporate restructuring.