PORTLAND-Staff for the Oregon Public Utility Commission is recommending approval of the $2 million loan from Portland General Electric to Portland Energy Solutions, a PGE spin-off that was being funded by the Enron. The commission votes on Monday.

PORTLAND-As expected, Using Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, Shilo Inn founder Mark Hemstreet has sought protection from creditors for another 21 of his hotels this week. Twenty seven of his 46 hotels are now in bankruptcy, and the sale of some of them appears likely.

SEATTLE-The office supply retailer leases a portion of the former Ernst Hardware building at the mall, which is located at 2501 Southwest Trenton St. in West Seattle.

PORTLAND-The two-building, 38,000-sf historic property has been two-thirds empty since Agency.com walked out on its lease last November and had to be sued for a settlement. The owners listed the property at that time, but recently lowered the price to $40,000 less than they purchased it for five years ago.

PORTLAND-The 16,200-sf flex building in the Columbia Crossing business center was built in 1998 and is fully leased to two tenants: Exp@nets, and Church of God. The buyer, Market Contractors, is a local retail and commercial contractor company.

HILLSBORO, OR-The 80,000-sf building sits adjacent the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology, which last year merged into Oregon Health Sciences University. The selling entity, Amberjack Ltd., is part of State Farm Insurance, owner of the 217-acre AmberGlen Business Center.

SALEM, OR-Sportsman's Warehouse, a Utah-based sporting goods chain, leases part of a 104,000-sf former HomeBase building on Lancaster Drive that has been vacant for more than a year.

SEATTLE-A reinvented relationship with the University of Washington allows Northwest real estate giant Unico Properties--restricted for the past 50 years from competing with the school's investments here, which it manages--to pursue opportunities inside city limits, though still not Downtown.