DALLAS-Centex Corp.'s second-quarter results have caused an about-face, with the Dallas-based business now predicting its fiscal 2001 earnings will range between $4 and $4.25 per diluted share instead of a previously forecast $4.22.

AUSTIN-Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. is bullish on Austin's 23-acre Research Park Plaza, signing its second lease in a month for back-to-back building projects that will deliver in summer 2001. The company will occupy all of the 358,000 sf under construction.

AUSTIN-A Menlo Park, CA-based has leased 11,000 sf at TechRidge for a new manufacturing facility to supply gas and liquid delivery solutions for the semiconductor process equipment industry. A formal grand opening is set for mid-November.

HOUSTON-It's out with the old and in with the new for Dillard's, come 2002.

AUSTIN-Rainbow Technologies, headquartered in Irvine, CA, is the newest partner in the Microsoft Technology Center, which opened earlier this month in Austin. The security systems provider is joining power players such as Dell, CyberSource and Giganet.

DALLAS-E.W. Blanch Co. Inc is entering into a joint venture with a CA-based online financial and insurance service firm to boost its $17-million fiscal strategy that is being mortared through pacts with joint ventures and various institutions.

HOUSTON-Ariel of France is relocating into a 45,000-sf office/warehouse structure that it has bought from Work Flow Management in the Northwest Industrial Park. It plans to hang a for sale sign on the Brookhollow West building.

HOUSTON-Houston-based eRealty.com, an on-line residential brokerage, has closed on its 500th transaction since its premiere in August 1999. The firm has 10 brick and mortar offices nationwide and plans to launch additional sites in San Diego and San Francisco.