The Business Press, San Bernardino, Calif., Real Estate & Retail Column.

Byline: Joseph Ascenzi

Jan. 12--COUNTY HABITAT TO CLEAR WAY FOR MORE DEVELOPMENT: Riverside County has purchased 9,100 acres in Potrero Canyon to aside as a nature preserve protected from development. The purchase, announced Jan. 2, is part of the county's multi-species habitat conservation plan. The county will buy more than 150,000 acres during the next 50 years, county spokesman Ray Smith said. Lockheed Martin Corp. sold the land east of Highway 79, between Banning and the San Jacinto River, to the county for $25.5 million -- about $9 million less than the land's