Behringer Harvard Multifamily REIT I recently made what was then 2009’s largest California multi-family acquisition with an $80 million purchase of Waterford Place Apartment Homes near the Bay Area. This week, the REIT topped that with the $96 million purchase of another property—this time in Los Angeles.

Portland, Ore.-based management and investment firm Guardian Real Estate Services is planning to roll out a new advisory division. The company’s new unit will be headed by Brad Bullock, who will join Guardian as senior vice president, advisory services.

A convenient method for property owners to secure a quick cash infusion, sale-leaseback transactions were plentiful just a couple of years ago, but now it is usually only the more financially burdened of sellers that resort to accepting lowball sale-leaseback offers. Whether White Oak Petroleum L.L.C. falls into the aforementioned category is unclear, but the Springfield, Va.-based company just sold 36 Exxon gasoline station and convenience store properties for $49 million in a sale-leaseback transaction with Jericho, N.Y.-based Getty Realty Corp.

Northstar Commercial Partners has acquired a 370,000-square-foot distribution center in Sugar Land, Texas, near Houston.

McShane Medical Properties has been awarded the management and leasing assignment for Nationwide Health Properties, a portfolio containing a total of 380,000 square feet across 12 buildings throughout suburban Chicago.

Private real estate firm Monday Properties has tapped former Jones Lang LaSalle vice president Jordan Berger as the firm’s new director in its New York office.

The $4 billion Atlantic Yards mixed-use development–the centerpiece of which will be the Barclays Center sports and entertainment arena, future home base of the NBA’s Nets team–has new financial backing. Developer Forest City Ratner Cos. Inc. and Nets Sports and Entertainment have just signed a letter of intent to form a strategic partnership with an affiliate of Moscow-based international private investment fund Onexim Group for the development of the 22-acre project. The multi-faceted deal calls for Onexim to invest $200 million.

Global industrial property REIT ProLogis has signed a lease renewal for 176,000 square feet of distribution space in Reno, Nev., with ITS Logistics, a third-party logistics provider.

After multiple quarters of dismal investment activity, new funds and investment entities are cropping up to capitalize on the discounted commercial real estate assets that are hitting the market. Atlanta-based Wood Partners L.L.C. has just entered the game, too. The multi-family developer has expanded its business platform to include acquisitions.

Private real estate firm Monday Properties has tapped former Jones Lang LaSalle vice president Jordan Berger as the firm’s new director in its New York office.