White Oak Properties announced this week that its downtown Raleigh condo project, Palladium Plaza, has received Federal Housing Administration approval.

Such approval has become vital for condo projects as it allows buyers to put less money down and secure better lending terms.

FHA loans are available up to $295,000 in Wake County and require only 3.5 percent down.

Hue, another downtown Raleigh condo project, is offering a lease-to-own option in an attempt to get enough units under contract to get FHA approval.

Palladium, on Blount Street between Davie and Cabarrus, has sold all but 11 of its 66 units.

White Oak is offering several incentives to try and move the remaining units including free additional parking space for buyers who are under contract by April 30.

At last week's tree lighting on Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh, developer Roland Gammon loved what he saw but not all of what he heard.

What he saw is people flocking downtown to the new City Plaza, Raleigh's $14.8 million public square at the south end of Fayetteville Street.

In addition to the tree lighting, the city has installed a temporary ice rink on a slice of the plaza that runs between the Bank of America building and the proposed site for Charter Square, a two tower project that Gammon's firm White Oak Properties is a partner in.

Charter Square is one of several downtown projects that has been delayed indefinitely by the credit crisis. What bothered Gammon was hearing people say that the ice rink was a great use for the space after "those developers ran out of money."

"I'm sure I heard that ... at least a dozen times," Gammon said. "Our building is not being built, not because we ran out of money--we've got plenty of money--but not enough money to build a building in this awful economy."