Thanks to allotted funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the government has maintained a steady stream of construction activity during the recession, and Turner Construction Co. is getting in on the game.

Prime opportunities in the commercial real estate market go well beyond the distressed property pool, as evidenced by LaSalle Hotel Properties’ recent all-cash acquisition of the unencumbered Hotel Sofitel Washington, DC Lafayette Square. The Bethesda, Md.-based REIT snapped up the 237-room luxury hotel for $95 million.

Chevy Chase, Md.-based JBG Companies has been chosen to spearhead a new $200 million facility for the National Cancer Institute.

The Washington, D.C., office market may have reached a turning point in demand as the region experienced improved fundamentals last quarter—figures propelled by expanded demand for government office space. And if deals like the recent $73 million sale of an office building in Falls Church, Va., are any indication, buyers are taking interest in the area’s strong demographics..

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.

A joint venture between Behringer Harvard REIT I Inc. and PGGM Private Real Estate Fund has acquired a 308-unit multi-family community in Cherry Hill, N.J., about seven miles east of central Philadelphia.