Summerview Square is a town-house-style apartment project going up in Norwalk after a previous developer walked away, leaving squalor in his wake.

In Manhattan, parking lots and garages are making way for all sorts of development, especially luxury condominiums.

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed workers fell in January to the lowest levels since 2009. The U.S. economy added 243,000 jobs in January, beating economists’ expectations and continuing the trend of positive economic data that began in the fourth quarter of 2011. The unemployment rate dropped from 8.5 percent to 8.3 percent. “All in all, a solid jobs report that is supportive of ongoing income and spending growth and improvement in business and consumer sentiment,” said Robert Dye, a Comerica Bank economist...

As the U.S. economy -- and that of global markets -- continues to reel from the Great Recession, many lending institutions still are struggling to regain their footing. In the past three years alone, 389 banks have failed, including 90 in 2011, according to New York-based Invictus Consulting Group LLC. Note: Click here for database of all 389 bank failures since 2001. Of those, four were Ohio-based banks, including Peoples Community Bank in West Chester, which closed in July 2009, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation data...

As many as 17 Ohio banks could close or fail within the next two years without corrective action or a merger occurring, according to New York-based Invictus Consulting Group LLC, which completed stress and sustainability tests on all banks insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. More than 750 banks nationwide are at risk of failing in the next several years, which could further extend the financial crisis, according to the report. Of the 231 financial institutions in the Buckeye State, 17, or 7...

Stock ownership by members of Congress has been an issue recently after several media reports that were critical of what some viewed as politicians capitalizing on inside information about the financial crisis, including a featured report on CBS news program "60 Minutes." Just this week, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, called his peers in the Senate to be forbidden from owning individual stocks, saying it creates conflict of interest on several issues. Brown has reportedly sold all of his individual stock already...

There was a big shakeup at the top of the banking brand rankings released this past week, which included several of the top banks in the Dayton region. Wells Fargo & Co. jumped ahead of Bank of America for the second spot on Brand Finance's Banking 500, a list of the best global banking brands in 2012, which was released Feb. 1. Note: Click here for the Top 25 bank brands in America. The value of the 500 banking brands this year was down nearly $100 billion to a total of $746.7 billion, which is equivalent to the GDP of Turkey, according to the report...

I have had this column nearly 10 years, and haven't been able to find a better source of news about people with disabilities than Inclusion Daily Express, which has been run since 1999 by 51-year-old Dave Reynolds of Spokane, Washington

Some snowfall earlier in the week and a sun-drenched weather forecast makes skiing or snowboarding look appealing this weekend in the Lake Tahoe region.

Larkspur Hotels has sold another property from its four-star hotel collection. This time a direct competitor was the buyer: Kimpton Hotels snapped up the 84-room Riverplace, gaining itself a third property in Portland, Oregon. Terms of the deal were not immediately available. Larkspur has been selling off its four-star properties piecemeal since Farallon Capital, its partner in the properties, decided to get out of its investment in June 2011. The first Larkspur Collection sold to LaSalle Hotel Properties in October 2011...

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued banking’s Big Three -- J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo -- on Friday over their use of an electronic mortgage database that played a key role in financing the nation’s historic housing bubble. Schneiderman, who gained additional clout last month when President Obama named him co-chairman of a new federal mortgage-crisis unit, filed suit against Bank of America, (NYSE: BAC) Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) and J.P. Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) in New York State Supreme Court...

Sacramento real estate developer Sotiris K. Kolokotronis filed for personal bankruptcy Friday, listing debts of more than $130 million and assets of $3.2 million. Concurrent with the filing, his bankruptcy attorney Walter Dahl issued a news release that said Kolokotronis’ continuing dispute with an investment firm triggered the filing. That firm, an entity of Ayres Advisors of San Diego, has been pursuing a $16.5 million judgment against Kolokotronis for several years. The Chapter 7 liquidation case could resolve that judgment and protect some of Kolokotronis’ personal assets...

Sacramento real estate developer Sotiris K. Kolokotronis filed for personal bankruptcy Friday, listing debts of more than $130 million and assets of $3.2 million. Concurrent with the filing, his bankruptcy attorney Walter Dahl issued a news release that said Kolokotronis’ continuing dispute with an investment firm triggered the filing. That firm, an entity of Ayres Advisors of San Diego, has been pursuing a $16.5 million judgment against Kolokotronis for several years. The Chapter 7 liquidation case could resolve that judgment and protect some of Kolokotronis’ personal assets...

Addison-based Behringer Harvard says it's current on interest payments on Frisco Square and expects its "technical default" to have minimal short-term impact on the operations of the mixed-use property north of Dallas. Behringer Harvard Opportunity REIT I Inc. defaulted on the balance of $44.1 million in loans it took out for its investment in Frisco Square. The debt came due on Jan. 28 on six tracts of land for the Frisco project, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Behringer Harvard said it was working to extend the maturity date on the loan...

Addison-based Behringer Harvard says it's current on interest payments on Frisco Square and expects its "technical default" to have minimal short-term impact on the operations of the mixed-use property north of Dallas. Behringer Harvard Opportunity REIT I Inc. defaulted on the balance of $44.1 million in loans it took out for its investment in Frisco Square. The debt came due on Jan. 28 on six tracts of land for the Frisco project, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Behringer Harvard said it was working to extend the maturity date on the loan...

The Securities and Exchange Commission has reached plea agreements with an ex-Qwest CFO and another former company official -- the two last defendants sued by the agency over the Denver-based telecom's financial irregularities prior to 2001. The Associated Press reports that the SEC filed notice of a plea deal with the federal court under which Robert Woodruff, former CFO of Denver-based Qwest Communications International, would admit no wrongdoing and agree to pay $2.7 million to the government...

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Marc Barreca this afternoon granted a motion allowing $2.8 million to be disbursed to about 200 creditors of bankrupt Seattle developer Michael R. Mastro. Bankruptcy trustee Jim Rigby said unsecured creditors with allowed claims will be getting checks mid-month. Money will be set aside for unsecured creditors whose claims are yet to be determined. The money is coming from proceeds of the December 2010 sale of the Mastros' waterfront Medina mansion for $9.1 million. In granting the motion, Judge Barreca ruled against Monaco businessman Hendrik Dorssers, a Mastro associate...

Feats of Clay will not make it to its 25th year. Feats of Clay XXV had been scheduled this year for April 28 through May 27. But it appears the show will not go on. The national ceramic arts and sculpture competition was a regional draw, as the art was displayed inside the massive honeycomb kilns at the Gladding McBean terra-cotta factory in Lincoln. Lincoln Arts, the nonprofit that puts on the competition, said the event has been retired.

The Redevelopment Commission of Greensboro anticipates having a master development agreement in place before the end of the year and selling seven acres of city-owned land to a developer in December for a mixed-used project at South Elm and Lee streets. The commission gave a nod to the timeline during its meeting that laid out the three-step process leading up to breaking ground next year on the $42 million project that is expected to include 168 market-rate apartments, retail space, a 75- to 90-bed hotel and 25 town house or condo units...

The Redevelopment Commission of Greensboro anticipates having a master development agreement in place before the end of the year and selling seven acres of city-owned land to a developer in December for a mixed-used project at South Elm and Lee streets. The commission gave a nod to the timeline during its meeting that laid out the three-step process leading up to breaking ground next year on the $42 million project that is expected to include 168 market-rate apartments, retail space, a 75- to 90-bed hotel and 25 town house or condo units...