Chain video stores hesitant to open in University City

Negotiations for a new campus video store may not be preliminary anymore, but they're still far from complete. The University's discussions with several big-name video store chains to bring one of them to Penn's campus are still underway. Meanwhile, in less than a month, Harrison College House officials plan to open a late-night video library in the dorm's basement. The videos will be rented at first only to Harrison residents, according to former House Dean Art Casciato. The University was hoping to bring one of the national chains to campus by this fall. Discussions with Blockbuster and Hollywood Video began last spring. But according to the University's top real estate official, Tom Lussenhop, Blockbuster has expressed no interest. And while Lussenhop said Hollywood Video has shown minimal interest, the company's negotiation so far "is so aggressive, it's causing us to question their viability." If the negotiations do go through, Lussenhop said he believes Penn will have a store open by the end of the year. He added that the intended location for the store is still the vacant spot next to the former location of Eat At Joe's. Penn real estate officials have pointed to the ever-changing nature of the video store industry, especially in such a technological age, as a reason for the two companies' lack of interest. "It's difficult for us [to see] how technology and video and music are evolving." said John Greenwood, a top official with the University's real estate company. Added Lussenhop: "This is an industry under stress. They're not loose about opening up a four-to-five thousand square foot store, which is what we're asking them to do." But even if negotiations with the two big-name companies made little headway, students may soon find the videos they want without leaving the University's residential system. Harrison Late Night Video Library is expected to open in about three weeks. In the beginning, the library will be for Harrison residents only. "Once we're up and running, it will be open to the whole Penn community," Casciato said. While the library can only afford single copies of movies and so far does not house DVDs, Casciato said that there is room for expansion. The video library will purposely be open when local video stores are closed, with a tentative closing hour of 2 a.m. "We don't want people to have to scramble out for a video in West Philadelphia at the middle of the night," Casciato said. Video Library on the 4000 block of Locust Street is currently the only video store on campus. It closes at 10 p.m. on weeknights and Saturdays. Lussenhop expressed enthusiasm for the video library. "We're not giving up [on a retail video store], but I'm happy to see that students' needs are being addressed through alternative means," said Lussenhop. If the video library is successful, Lussenhop thinks it will "show the video stores that there's a high-volume video market in University City." Within the next two weeks, the Undergraduate Assembly -- which has been actively pushing for a video store -- plans to meet with Lussenhop to discuss the video store initiative and other campus development issues.

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