Faced with paying almost $700,000 of his opponents' legal fees if he lost at trial - and court rulings that all but assured that he would - Rick Olivieri agreed yesterday to take his steak shop out of the Reading Terminal Market.
The settlement was announced on what would have been the first day of a nonjury trial before Common Pleas Court Judge Mark I. Bernstein of Olivieri's lawsuit against the market and of the market's suit to evict Olivieri.
The agreement calls for Olivieri, 43, one of the third generation of the South Philadelphia family that claims to have invented the steak sandwich 75 years ago, to close Rick's Original Philly Steaks by Oct. 31.
Yesterday, Olivieri was disconsolate and teary-eyed while speaking to reporters outside a City Hall courtroom. Several times, he turned and walked away to compose himself.
"It's not so much for myself; it's my employees," said Olivieri, who also has an outlet during baseball season at Citizens Bank Park. "Some of them have been with me 20 years. They're like a family."
Olivieri, whose family has operated from a prime window location on the market's 12th Street side since 1982, said he would reopen at another Center City location, though nothing was definite.
Kevin Feeley, spokesman for management at Reading Terminal Market Corp., said the settlement ended "a very difficult time for all the people involved. . . . Our motivation was always what was best for the market."
Feeley disputed Olivieri's claim that the eviction was retaliation for Olivieri's work as president of the 74-member merchants' group, with which he was involved in difficult talks on a new master lease.
Feeley said management agreed to forgo lease overstay penalties against Olivieri totaling $29,686 and its right to be reimbursed for $696,512 that it paid Richard Sprague and his law firm to represent the board.
Olivieri agreed not to try to return to the market for at least three years and not to contact any members of the market's management board. Any violation would result in reinstating legal fees and penalties.
"It's a sad day," Michael Holahan, owner of the Pennsylvania General Store and Olivieri's successor as head of the merchants group, said in a telephone interview.
"It's not clear to me that the market was well-served by losing a long-term merchant who had a wonderfully run business and lots of customers," Holahan said. "It doesn't feel like a net win."
