New Lease

The Philadelphia Housing Authority has proposed a new lease for its 80,000 tenants that would require security deposits and fees for late payment of rent while enabling the authority to evict tenants convicted of drug dealing, weapons offenses and other criminal activity. John F. White Jr., PHA's executive director, told the authority board at its regular monthly meeting yesterday that he hoped to have the document ready for a final board vote in April. "Assuming all goes well, it will represent the first time in a very long time that we have an enforceable lease," White said.

Crushed under stacks of files and crammed into cubbyholes, county court employees have run out of office space. To give them more elbow room, the county commissioners overcame their reservations about landlord Vahan H. Gureghian and voted unanimously Thursday to renew a lease on the Benson Building. Several departments, including the 66-employee, badly cramped Domestic Relations Office, will move there. The lease will cost the county $1.7 million over the next seven years, on a building appraised at about $800,000 in 1985.

The Narberth Post Office is about to receive an eviction notice, appropriately enough, in the mail. "They're going to get a letter telling them they're in default of the lease, and to get out," Peter Stevens, a sales representative for the Coldwell Banker real estate firm, said Friday. On Aug. 31, the Postal Service's lease on the building, at 144 N. Narberth Ave., expired. The post office has been searching for months to find a building with 8,000 square feet. The present building has half that amount of space.

Kraft Dairy Group has signed a lease for 70,000 square feet for a headquarters office at Seven Penn Center, the former IBM Building at 17th and Market Streets. The group, which makes Sealtest and Breakstone products, signed a 10-year lease valued at $13 million. Kraft plans to move to the building, recently renovated by MSK Associates, from 1880 JFK Blvd. this fall. The new lease makes Seven Penn Center 92 percent leased, said the Binswanger Co. which manages and leases the building.

The proposed get-tough lease policy being considered by the Philadelphia Housing Authority board of directors offers a reverse twist on the old saying, "too little, too late. " The proposed policy is "too much too soon" - a well-meaning but over- reaching attempt to reclaim public housing from drug dealers and other punks who are making life miserable for the decent majority of PHA tenants. It's a response to a sweeping mandate on criminal activity spelled out in new regulations from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, implementing amendments to the National Affordable Housing Act of 1990.

The 76ers and Spectacor expect to sign a new lease agreement this week. That will leave Spectacor, operator of the Spectrum and parent company of the Flyers, to decide, perhaps within the next few weeks, whether to build a new arena on the current site of JFK Stadium in South Philadelphia or on the Camden waterfront. The location of a new arena is now moot to Sixers owner Harold Katz. For him, a new lease will effectively end a nine-year search for what he feels is an equitable arrangement.

Rick Olivieri left his corner of the Reading Terminal Market yesterday without a lease, at times fighting tears, and promising to be behind the grill at Rick's Philly Steaks when the lunch crowds return today. The predicted end of the long-running drama between Olivieri and management of the historic market came and went, as T.S. Eliot said, not with a bang but a whimper. Olivieri's lawyer had sued to avoid eviction, but, as of late yesterday afternoon, there was no hearing and no court order.

The honeymoon between the NHL expansion Panthers and South Florida is over, and the relationship may end in divorce. After missing the playoffs in their first two seasons by just one point, the Florida Panthers might be getting ready to pack it up north after this season. Whether it is nearby Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach area or Nashville, Tenn., remains to be seen. Everything has changed for one of the NHL's most successful expansion franchises in a few summer months: Coach Roger Neilson was surprisingly let go June 8, and along with him went his much-maligned trapping, defensive style that frustrated opponents.

The Delaware County Council and the county's Economic Development Oversight Board are looking to attract new business and industry to Delaware County. The oversight board, successor to the county Partnership for Economic Development, and the council met with 25 major employers in the county Monday to discuss ways to maintain existing business and bring new firms into the region. Earlier, the oversight board asked for a proposal from a Philadelphia marketing consultant to update the county's economic-development strategy.

The Narberth Post Office will be staying put for another six years, at least. The U.S. Postal Service has negotiated a six-year lease with Royal Bank of Pennsylvania, which recently acquired the post office building at 144 N. Narberth Ave., according to Margaret King, public-information officer for the Postal Service's Philadelphia office. "In considering what our needs will be 10 years from now, that building will accommodate us, so we will remain there," said King. The Postal Service, which has been negotiating with the owners since its lease expired in August, hesitated to sign a lease because it was contemplating building a new facility, said King.