COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

Rite Aid Corp. has received approval from lenders to sell its PCS Health System Inc. subsidiary to a Texas health-services company for $1 billion. The transaction with Advance Paradigm Inc. remains subject to government approval, Rite Aid officials said. Under the deal announced this month, Advance Paradigm will pay Rite Aid $675 million in cash and provide Rite Aid with $200 million in senior subordinated notes. The companies have said the transaction is expected to close in the quarter ending Sept. 30. Rite Aid had been trying for months to sell PCS, one of the nation’s largest drug management companies, to help relieve debt. The nation’s third-largest drugstore chain, based in Camp Hill, Pa., purchased PCS for $1.5 billion in January 1999 from Eli Lilly & Co. The merged company, to be called Advance PCS, would make Irving, Texas-based Advance Paradigm the nation’s largest provider of health improvement services, serving about 75 million Americans. Rite Aid shares closed unchanged at $5 on the NYSE.