BERLIN-Under a management contract with Mediterranea Spa, a Sicilian public company, locally based Kempinski Hotels & Resorts will open the Kempinski Giardino di Costanza Grand Hotel & Spa in Mazara del Valla, on the island of Sicily.

SAN FRANCISCO-The locally based apartment REIT says that over the next year its president/CEO Frank McDowell will phase into retirement and Constance Moore, currently the company's executive vice president, will phase into the president/CEO role.

BEAVERTON, OR-The Cary, NC-based maker of customer relationship management software commits to the State Farm-owned business center here long term, signing a seven-year lease for 31,650 sf.

SACRAMENTO- Susan DeMars, an outside consultant for the California Mortgage Bankers Assoc. for the past three years, is appointed as the organization's executive director.

SAN FRANCISCO-The mixed-use residential property consists of the 27 units, 10,900 sf of ground floor retail and a 16,500-sf parking garage. The combined property was sold for an average $314,815 per door or upward of $245 per sf.

SYDNEY-The Cleveland-based mall REIT and the locally based investment bank close on the formation of Macquarie DDR Trust, which will list this week on the Australian Stock Exchange.

SEATTLE-Cure Water Damage, a water damage contracting chain, leases the 10,000-sf Messenger Sign Building here from Messenger Sign Corp., which plans to move out of the building in January and into a larger facility it acquired this summer in Georgetown.

MUMBAI, INDIA-Working with its international affiliate ATIS Real, the New York City-based tenant representation firm opens a new office here that is being led by Ashok Kumar, the former head of Insignia Brooke's India operations.