Comcast Spectacor L.P. wants to build a 10,000- to 12,000- seat arena to replace the Spectrum as a concert and minor-league pro sports venue.

"It's so preliminary it's unbelievable," said Comcast Spectacor chief executive officer Peter Luukko, when asked about rumored locations on the east side of the Delaware. "We're closing the Spectrum in a year. We absolutely have to look around. We've had some confidential conversations in Camden County."

"They reached out to us and we're helping them with the site scouting process," said Camden County Improvement Authority spokesman Ken Shuttleworth. He wouldn't comment on sites.

The firm has also talked to promoters of sites in Atlantic City and Allentown.

Would Comcast Spectacor really leave its South Philly base and move its American Hockey League Phantoms franchise elsewhere? "If we could get some momentum for it, we'd love to stay here," Luukko said.

Public arenas get built with taxpayer subsidies. Expect a lot of secret talks, leaks and wishful thinking among developers and politicians before a Spectrum replacement gets announced.

Modern produce

Talks between the city, state, owners, builders and unions, led by State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo (D., Phila.), took seven years and moved through at least three rival locations. Ground was broken on the site yesterday.

"A lot of people needed to be satisfied," said John Vena, whose grandfather started John Vena Inc. when the produce market was still on Dock Street, before it moved to the city-funded Food Distribution Center on Pattison Avenue 50 years ago.

What does the state gain by building a single new truck- friendly, all-refrigerated, drive-in wholesale and retail Philadelphia Regional Produce Market?

"We could have struck out on our own. But it's like an airport. You get everybody together, you draw a lot more people," Vena said. Who? Buyers for supermarkets, restaurants and big institutions, farmers, shippers, anyone who buys produce by the case.

"This facility gives us a leg up," Vena said. "It preserves the 'cold chain' as we move the food [from truck to inspector to packager to storage to truck]. It makes it safe and traceable."

Competition is manifold, from importers, chains, independent distributors, and the other big East Coast terminals at Hunts Point in New York's Bronx borough, and in Jessup, Md., near Baltimore. They don't have a building like this.

Tom Holt, whose family is the biggest port operator on the Delaware, said he expected the center to attract more cargo to Philadelphia and Wilmington piers. The produce firms expect to employ more than 1,600 drivers, loaders, clerks and salespeople.

Rent will increase to an initial $10,000 a month per unit (some merchants occupy several units), from the current $3,200, after King of Prussia developer Brian O'Neill builds the new center, on a site he controls.

For the 68 building units, that works out to $8.2 million a year to the new landlord, the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority, a state agency that can use that income to rebuild city terminals and for other public projects, said port chairman John Estey.

Pennsylvania taxpayers are putting up $152 million, the feds are in for $7 million, American International Group Inc. will lend $50 million, and the city, said Mayor Nutter, has agreed at the last minute to fund site improvements.