Globest Sectors

AUSTIN-Fired Up has struck a franchise deal with a major player in the United Arab Emirate. Four UAE eateries will be opened under the pact, which had been signed on the eve of today's Johnny Carino's Nile City riverboat opening in Cairo.

CHICAGO-Two city blocks north of the Ogilvie Transportation Center will be turned into a 200,000-sf retail market by a joint venture between commuter rail agency Metra and US Equities Realty, LLC.

SAN LEANDRO, CA-A new Century 16 Theater is open at the 40-year-old Bayfair Mall here, and mall owner Heitman Retail Properties of Chicago, says the $12 million project should do wonders for mall anchors Long's Drug and Macy's.

VANCOUVER, WA-After a two-month delay to adjust plans for a larger underground parking garage, work resumed this week in the 35-foot deep hole east of Esther Short Park in downtown Vancouver. Cranes and concrete will arrive next month.

INDIANAPOLIS-The REIT's $80 million in new developments include a 128,000-sf industrial facility for Eagle Inc. in Minneapolis. First-quarter activity also includes $54 million of new third-party construction contracts.

SAN JOSE, CA-A new director of leasing and two new reps are hired for the Rockville, MD-based REIT's master planned mixed-use community scheduled to open here in mid-2002 with 680,000 sf of shops and restaurants.

SEATTLE-The Alexandria, VA-based REIT paid $129.3 million for a total of 995 units in Issaquah, Lynwood and Everett as part of a nine-property portfolio acquisition from developer Trammell Crow Residential.

KANSAS CITY-Tax Increment Financing plans had called for construction of a $25-million office building. DST Realty Inc. has no immediate plans for a site that once was slated for a 180,000-sf office building.