Indie rock club coming soon to 40th Street area

A local promoter plans to turn a warehouse into a new concert venue. Indie rock fans in University City will have a new place to hear live music in an alcohol-free environment when Stalag 2000 opens its doors near the corner of 40th and Market streets later this month, according to club co-owner Sean Agnew. Agnew said that although he is still in the process of obtaining the proper licenses, Stalag 2000 will open its doors on October 29. Agnew has been in the business of bringing underground bands -- the type one might read about in The College Music Journal -- to the Philadelphia area for the past five years, organizing shows in church basements and garages. "It's gonna be pretty bare-bones at the first couple of things," Agnew explained, adding that the building at 18 N. 40th Street is currently covered with industrial carpeting and beige paint, but that renovations are set to begin this week. The building currently serves as a Penn storage facility and contains boxes, furniture and light posts. The 9,000 square-foot club will accommodate three separate stages. The main room upstairs will provide about 6,000 square feet of dancing space and the two rooms downstairs combined will add another 3,000 square feet to the club. Agnew estimated that the club will have a legal occupancy of 360 people, but that it could hold up to 1,000. University officials lured Agnew to the 40th Street location -- which they leased from another company -- as part of an effort to provide additional alcohol-free activities for students and to further develop the 40th Street corridor. Last spring, the provost-appointed alcohol task force -- formed in response to a series of alcohol-related incidents, including the death of an alumnus outside a fraternity house following a night of drinking -- recommended a series of late-night alternatives, including an "alcohol-free music club." Agnew and his partners, Tony Croasdale and Andrew Martini, are no strangers to the West Philadelphia music scene. Until recently, Agnew ran an underground club at 39th Street and Lancaster Avenue called Stalag 13. But it was shut down by the city because it wasn't registered as an official club. According to Agnew, that venue was enormously popular, drawing between 200 and 800 attendees per show. When some Penn officials got word of Stalag 13's closing, they contacted Agnew and directed him to Tom Lussenhop, Penn's top real estate official, to try to work out a deal. Agnew said he and Lussenhop worked to find a suitable place for relocation of the original Stalag, which was named after the bunker in the 1980s television series Hogan's Heroes. The 40th Street location makes sense for the University because of its recent efforts to develop the area along 40th Street between Locust and Market streets. A new movie theater complex operated by Robert Redford's Sundance Cinemas will open at the corner of 40th and Walnut streets. Across from that will be a new upscale grocery store. If all goes well for Stalag 2000 during its first five months of operation, the University will permanently turn over its lease to the property, Agnew said. English Professor Al Filreis -- who as the director of the Kelly Writers House is also charged with instituting late-night, alcohol-free programming on campus -- said he believes the club will be beneficial to students and area residents. "The project seems to me to be right in line with the overall initiative to develop cultural alternatives at the edge of campus," he said. "This is breaking down the walls surrounding the University." Agnew said he hopes to eventually bring about 15 shows per month to Stalag 2000.