QUINCY, MA-Munroe Place, a 111-unit, eight-story luxury apartment building at 1205 Hancock St., nailed down $29.8 million in permanent financing. The building was completed this past May by a joint venture of Abbott Real Estate Development and National Electrical Benefit Fund, a Taft-Harley pension plan.

READING, MA-Home Depot is the first retailer to open at the Crossing at Walkers Brook, a $90 million 400,000-sf new retail center along Route 128. The 140,000-sf store will share a common footprint with a 260,000-sf Jordan's Furniture as the project centerpiece.

NEWTON, MA-MassHousing approves a $39.6-million loan commitment for Avalon at Newton Highlands, a 294-unit apartment community. The complex was built under the state's Chapter 40B affordable-housing law on a nearly eight-acre site that was formerly occupied by New England Concrete & Pipe Co.

BOSTON-Tarlow, Breed, Hart, Murphy & Rodgers moves out of the city's business district and into the Back Bay. The firm signs a lease for 18,000 sf on the fifth floor of 101 Huntington Ave. in the Prudential Center.

BEVERLY, MA-A refinancing in the amount of $29 million is arranged for North Beverly Plaza, an 183,599-sf suburban retail center located on nearly 17 acres. The plaza was renovated last year and among its major tenants are Shaw's supermarket and Staples.

BURLINGTON, MA-mValent Inc. leases 10,500 sf at 8 New England Executive Park, part of a 13-building master-planned office park owned by Equity Office Properties. The sublease deal with Siebel Systems represents a relocation of the software firm's headquarters from Tewksbury.

BOSTON-The merger of Manulife Financial with John Hancock Financial Services is about to be felt by the city's office market. The Toronto-based firm has hired Spaulding & Slye Colliers to sublease its excess space as its new 420,000-sf headquarters at 601 Congress St. nears completion.

BOSTON-Lexham Properties acquires 711 Atlantic Ave., an 83,307-sf six-story building, from a joint venture of Paradigm Properties and Westbrook Partners for $17.4 million or $208 per sf. This is the first area purchase for the Connecticut-based firm.