In its second acquisition of the month, Whitestone REIT has snapped up the Shops at Starwood in Frisco, Tex. The company shelled out $15.7 million in cash for the 55,400-square-foot suburban Dallas retail center.

AG Net Lease Fund II, a vehicle of Angelo, Gordon & Co., has picked up a 192,053-square-foot office in the Los Angeles submarket of El Segundo for $45 million from Kilroy Realty Corp.

The newest development in the Equity Residential saga has been filed in court, as the company put forth a motion to intervene in the ongoing legal proceedings regarding the sale of an interest in Archstone.

Pending home sales in the U.S. gained more in November than any other month since the tax credit of 2010. Initial jobless claims, while up slightly last week, are still trending downward. And Sears released its initial closure list of 79 stores.

Skanska USA has reached an agreement on the Spring House research complex in Montgomery County, Pa., securing a $60 million contract from Janssen Research & Development L.L.C. to provide construction-management services.

Oak Grove Capital has orchestrated financing for a three-property affordable housing portfolio in Southern Florida — owned by Banyan Realty — for $46.2 million through Fannie Mae’s Structured ARM product.

Despite the holiday season, December has been busy for many firms — JLL, Transwestern and CBRE, among others — with some new hires and promotions to key positions.

On the heels of Sears’ announcement that it will shutter between 100 and 120 stores, CRE industry experts wonder if locations larger than 100,000 square feet could be on the chopping block.

The unofficial numbers indicate that, on the whole, retailers did well this holiday. An AP survey of economists show that most think 2012 will be better than 2011, but only slightly. Yields on six-month Italian debt dropped to 3.2 percent.