Penske Automotive Group says it's cancelled plans to take over General Motors Corp.'s Saturn division because it doesn't believe it'll be able to find parts. Announcement here. Bloomberg says that means GM will "wind down" Saturn because it couldn't get Renault, Samsung or anyone to take over production, story here.
 

Update: "...The report that Comcast has a deal to purchase NBC Universal is inaccurate," Comcast spokeswoman D'Arcy Foster-Rudnay tells Bloomberg here. Rudnay "declined to comment" on a report it's been in talks with NBC owner General Electric Corp.

Earlier: Philadelphia's Comcast "is in talks to buy the entertainment giant NBC-Universal from General Electric" for $35 billion, former New York Times reporter Sharon Waxman reports on her Web site, TheWrap.com, citing unnamed sources here.

Last night I posted how Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., joined Republicans and conservative Democrats voting down a "public option" insurance proposal in the Senate Finance Committee. But later he voted "yes" on a second proposal - which still didn't pass. I asked his office to explain that one. Carper's statement:  

"While not perfect, I supported Sen. Schumer's 'level playing field public option' amendment because I believe it - or something similar to it - could help drive down insurance costs for consumers in a way that doesn't unfairly disadvantage insurance companies.

"Unlike other so-called public option proposals, Sen. Schumer's amendment seeks to ensure that any public health insurance plan remain independent, self-financed and self-sustaining. No one, not consumers nor providers, would be required to participate, and the government would not be able to negotiate prices based on Medicare rates, thereby better ensuring equal competition in the marketplace.

"Instead, the public option would compete with other insurance plans in a way that would offer greater choice, at less cost, for the consumer. 

"I did not support Sen. Rockefeller's amendment largely because it would give the government an unfair advantage in the marketplace by allowing it to negotiate prices initially based on Medicare. That would stifle competition, not increase it, and the end result, I believe, would not be good for the consumer."

Even if it's good for the taxpayer. - Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., says this isn't flip-flopping or grinding too fine; he tells me Carper's working hard to get a bill passed and bring some Republicans around.  Concluded Carper, "Although Sen. Schumer's amendment failed, this will not be the last we've heard on this issue."

To talk about the troubled property markets: Villanova University's business school is hosting:

Dan DiLella, chief executive of office landlord BPG Properties; Brent Morris, of Capmark Investments; Joel Rassman, chief financial officer at homebuilder Toll Bros.; Richard Parkus of Deutsche Bank; Brian DiDonato of Sorin Capital Management; and UNC Prof. David Hartzell, 

at Connelly Center's Villanova Room, 800 Lancaster Ave., 6 pm tomorrow, Thursday Oct. 1, says Shawn D. Howton, finance prof and director of the Daniel M. DiLella Center for Real Estate.

"We have 145 registered, as of now," Howton told me. UPDATE: "We're full," says Associate Director Tim Hoffman, no walk-ins. But people can watch an archive version, in about a week, at www.villanova.edu/business/excellence/realestate .  

They'll talk about TARP, raising equity and debt, the frozen Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities market, and "potential trades" for distressed properties.

"The casino's downtown location, competition from established properties" in neighboring markets, "and traffic congestion around the property" have "contributed to a weaker-than-expected opening for the slot parlor" at Pittsburgh's Rivers Casino, writes Standard & Poor's credit analyst Michael Listner in a Sept. 28 report.

Listner downgraded Rivers owner Holdings Gaming's credit rating to B-, from B, and also put the lower rating on "CreditWatch, with negative implications." Citing Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board data, he said the gambling hall had failed to meet "our prior expectations", with revenues falling to $170/slot machine/day, instead of rising to an expected $300/machine/day, during the month before Labor Day.

If Pittsburgh's casino is in trouble, does it look bad for Philadelphia's proposed gambling halls? "You wouldn't be going out on a limb to think that, given the urban location," Listner told me. "You have these issues of getting in and out of the property without a parking garage," like the one that makes the Harrah's slots hall in Chester more viable. Holdings' owners include Chicago investor Neil Bluhm, who's also an investor in Philadelphia's proposed SugarHouse gambling hall.

Some TD Bank customers have complained to my consumer-writer colleague Jeff Gelles that they haven't been able to read their account balances in real time since last week, when the company was supposed to finish converting systems between TD and its local predecessor, the former Commerce Bank of Cherry Hill.

TD came clean right away: "This started over the weekend," spokeswoman Rebecca Acevedo told me. "They're seeing what their balances were as of the previous evening." Like an earlier computer era, when companies batched, transactions and they showed up in your account next day. "But people can tranact normally. They can buy a cup of coffee. They can withdraw funds." 

How long will this last? "We're working on it now. We hope to have it under control in the next few hours." How many of TD's 6.5 million customers are affected? "Not all of them. My account is fine."

I stopped up at Dietz & Watson's cold-cuts manufacturing plant on Tacony St. yesterday and asked immigrant sausage-maker Gottlieb Dietz's grandchildren, who run the $300 million yearly-sales company, a real soft question: Why are they giving away sandwiches at City Hall's Dilworth Plaza, tomorrow, 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.?

"We had one in Charlotte," N.C., at the Epicenter mall, "and we had a great response," chief executive Louis Eni told me. "We figured it was about time to do it here," to show appreciation for Philadelphians who've bought Dietz & Watson meats for 70 years.

Eni walked me around the chilly factory, through high block rooms fragrant with cloves, cinnamon and pepper, noisy with compressed-air and conveyor-belt machinery, busy with dozens of union crews in hard hats and white coats, hair nets and boots, cutting, stuffing, packing, loading, cleaning. D&W buys meat and spices, and builds them into hundreds of lines of roast beefs, hams, chickens, sausages, and hot dogs by the three-pound box.

The company targeted Charlotte because it says its Florida-based rival, Boars Head, had been pressing for an exclusive cold-cut deal at a North Carolina supermarket chain that would freeze out Dietz. Boars Head tried that at SuperFresh stores two years ago, said Chris Eni, Lou's brother, who runs operations at the plant. In the SuperFresh case, "they lasted less than six months, then they asked us to come back in," Louis said. Boars Head wouldn't call me back.

Dietz includes, besides the Philadelphia plant, a 150-person Baltimore, Md. poultry cold cuts plant purchased from Parks Sausage Co. (the brand is still owned by Steelers veteran Franco Harris) in 2000; the 100-worker Black Bear frozen-products distribution center in Delanco; the cheese prep factory in Corfu, NY, which employs 75; and distribution centers in South Carolina and Florida, said sister Cindy Eni Yingling, the company CFO.

Why is Dietz still here when most old Philadelphia cold-cut makers are gone? Besides the rare unity and continuity of the founding family? Because they compete on quality, the only way to respond to relentless low-price producers. For example, "no carageenan," says Louis, meaning the water-loving seaweed that many food processors use to hold water. "No MSG. No soy fillers. Not all the water. High-quality meat and spices. It costs more. But it's the only way to get the right taste."

How's business different today from 1975, when the plant moved to the Northeast from Front and Vine? "Everybody used to buy baloney loaves, franks and sausages," said Lou. "The fastest-growing (line) today is chicken breast," with a variety of spices. "It's perceived as being low in fat. And it's got a better flavor" than turkey or other newly-popular meats.

Dietz sells mostly to distributors and store chains. ShopRite and Acme are "huge," though no market or distributor is more than 8% of total sales. Wawa "is not a customer." Dietz distributes in Korea, and to military bases in the Middle East. But exports are hard, even to Canada, because of protectionist rules.

Half of sales are within 100 miles of Philadelphia. "This is a sandwich city," said marketing chief Ken Hoffman, a 30-year veteran. "People came here from those parts of the world that eat deli."

"The Greater Philadelphia office market plunged" as tenants pulled out of a net 1.96 million square feet of office space in the three months ending today, more than double the Spring new-vacancy rate, business tenant rep GVA Smith Mack reports today. Total vacancies at 17.7%, from 15.9% in March, and 14.5% last year.

"More and more space has been vacated rather than leased, due to job losses and downsizing of companies," the firm wrote. "These stats trail what's happening in the market," founding partner Jeff Mack told me.

How much space went empty in July, August, September? Add up everything across the region, it's as if the Comcast and Cira towers sent everybody home. Or One Liberty and the Independence Blue Cross building.

Rents are down a modest 5 cents a square foot, to an average $22.47, if you believe "published reports." But "tenants are consolidating wherever they can, to cut square footage," Mack told me. "Deals are being done at even lower rates" as landlords "put more people in less space."

Center City vacancy rates rose to 13.1%, from 11.8%, during the quarter, including subleases. Downtown vacancies grew by 457,00 square feet, versus 617,000 the previous three months. Commonwealth Land Title, Right Management and Rohm and Haas were among the companies putting blocs of office space on the market.

It's worse in the suburbs, where Chester County's 150 Oaklands, Trinity Corporate Center and 1475 Phoenixville Pike reported big new vacancies. Horsham and Wilmington did better; Radnor finally plugged the holes left by Wyeth's departure for Collegeville a few years back by picking up VWR and Main Line Health (relocating and taking more space); King of Prussia and Plymouth Meeting did worse. South Jersey lost just as much rental space as Philadelphia.

SDI Health LLC's plan for a new 150,000 square foot headquarters in Plymouth Meeting "is the first new construction we've had in awhile." BPG Properties Ltd.'s new LEED-certified 1000 Continental Drive in King of Prussia is getting its $32 a square foot asking rate, with financials Nationwide, Hartford, Capital One and Rutherfoord, among others, but old space is dipping as low as "the mid-teens," Mack told me.

Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank president Charles Plosser tells students at Lafayette College tonight that the economy is getting less worse, but more people are going to lose their jobs for some time yet. NEW: Read Plosser's full remarks here. -- Highlights: