Office

NEW YORK CITY-Several New York based companies have backed the creation of new Web-based ventures.

ORANGE COUNTY, CA-After shedding thousands of Southland positions since the 1998 merger, the banking giant will bring some back through consolidation of a key business segment.

CHICAGO- Real estate titan continues to predict massive consolidation for the real estate industry, saying the upcoming changes will be akin to the "oligopolization" of steel and autos early last century. Zell says the two REITs he launched and in which he remains the largest shareholder, Equity Office REIT and Equity Residential REIT, will increasingly focus on offering services to their huge client base. Sees Equity Residential offering insurance and mortgages to renters who are leaving to buy homes.

FT. COLLINS, CO-Cytomation Inc., an international biotech instrumentation company, is doubling the size of its headquarters in this northern Colorado city. The $3-million, 27,000-sf project is positioned adjacent to its 11,000-sf manufacturing facility.

DENVER-The end gets closer for the landmark 100,000-sf Currigan Hall, designed to be taken apart and rebuilt like a Tinker toy, with a board nixing a city-civic plan to relocate it across the street to the Auraria Higher Education campus. The city's planning director and a preservationist architect says they will continue to court relocation suitors.

SUNNYVALE, CA - The international electronics firm is operating out of two four-story buildings here in the Philips Silicon Valley Center at 1000 W. Maude Ave.

STAMFORD, CT-Bernard Wiesenberg, who spent the past 18 years with a fine arts publishing house, has joined Insignia/ESG as a broker in its Westchester-Connecticut office.

HERNDON, VA. - Walker & Dunlop arranges financing package through undisclosed lender on 125,000-sf office building.