Building on its “longstanding relationship with J.P. Morgan,” services firm Cassidy Turley has just landed a contract to lease and manage 2.5 million square feet of office space at Dallas’ Fountain Place and Houston’s Post Oak Central.

CBRE Group Inc. has tapped longtime real estate broker Louis Christopher to play a key role in the firm’s tenant representation activities as a vice chairman.

Near the close of yesterday’s markets, Jamestown Properties and Rockwood Capital announced the $390 million acquisition of 530 Fifth Ave. — also known as the Bank of New York Building — which is soon to undergo a $20 million renovation to bring the property to Class A standards.

The latest purchase in the D.C. market comes courtesy of Paramount Group Inc., on behalf of Paramount Group Real Estate Fund IV, which picked up the 12-story building at 2099 Pennsylvania Ave.

The Internal Revenue Service, acting through Government Properties Income Trust, just signed a 10-year, 531,976-square-foot lease renewal in Fresno, Calif.

Eight months after The Miami Herald Co.’s Miami digs were sold in a short-term, sale-leaseback transaction, the newspaper has signed a long-term lease for the 158,300-square-foot former U.S. Southern Command headquarters at Westpointe Business Park in neighboring Doral, Fla.

Following the signing of a 358,100-square-foot lease, LydondellBasell, a longtime tenant of 1 Houston Center, will see the building renamed the LydondellBasell Tower.

Approximately eight months after Trammell Crow and Principal Real Estate Investors snapped up the former Hewlett-Packard headquarters in Houston, the joint venture has secured a commitment from Noble Energy Inc. to occupy the 497,000-square-foot office building in its entirety.

PNC Bank has decided to stay put at its longtime digs in East Brunswick, N.J., with the signing of a 131,400-square-foot lease at Two Tower Center Blvd.

According to a briefing by CBRE Group, the office sector’s recovery continues to be hit-and-miss around the country, but in the nation’s largest city, 2011 marked another year of steady improvement.