PhillyInc

Brian O'Neill's O'Neill Property Group is doing a brownfield-reclamation project in Malvern called Uptown Worthington, and he has snagged one of the country's hottest upscale film-entertainment venues. According to The Inquirer, O'Neill has signed Muvico Entertainment L.L.C. to put in a movie and entertainment complex at the 100-acre, mixed-use community he is developing at the site of the former Worthington Steel factory. The complex is scheduled for completion in 2009 and will have more than 1.6 million square feet of space for retail, entertainment, offices and residences. O'Neill already has signed Wegmans Food Market. He tells the WSJ: "Worthington's target market wants more than just a movie, and Muvico gives customers a night of entertainment." In other spots, Muvico's amenities have included luxury boxes, valet parking and a child-care center. The Inqurier's Carrie Rickey noted in a recent story that Muvico is "going back to the future" with neo-palaces such as Xanadu, scheduled to open next year at New Jersey's Meadowlands. -- Thomas Ginsberg

- Peter Dobrin

Nothing like covering the auditions for American Idol to reaffirm how powerful people's workplace connections are.
Tara DiOrio, 28, of Prospect Park, is the personal assistant to the executive of a local paint company. (She's the one singing "Walkin' After Midnight" in Philly.com's video) Her boss is paying her to try out. Joel Correa, 18, of Northeast Philadelphia, works at a local Circuit City store. "My managers are so stoked and they want all the nitty gritty," he said.
Jenn Jewell, a senior bank teller in York County, said, "When the radio comes on and there are no customers in there, we all stand and sing." Arleen Alexander works in a Home Depot in the Detroit area. Her co-workers made a good luck banner for the break room and if she gets any further in the process, they've promised a banner outside the store. "It's a great feeling to know everyone's on my side."

- Jane M. Von Bergen

The tally is in, and in the end, the King Tut exhibit at Philadelphia's Franklin Institute fell short of breaking the record for North American museum attendance, even after weeks of buildup publicity by the Franklin Institute. So says the museum in a statement this week, also reported by AP.

No matter. No. 2 may be just as good. (Just ask Avis). The museum's "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" closed Monday with 1.29 million visitors, second only to a 1979 exhibit (also King Tut) at Chicago's Field Museum. That beats King Tut's other current stops and is the most in Pennsylvania history. But let's call this whole record-setting thing off. The show looks like a big hit anyway in revenue, reputation and educational heft for the "Frankitute" (as our pre-schooler calls the Franklin Institute). Marketing V.P. Karen Corbin says the numbers are still being crunched and only dangles this to PhillyInc: "Our expectation was we would not lose money, and we have not." We're betting that will be Philadelphia's understatement of the year.

- Thomas Ginsberg

Seems like a perfect target for the Philaelphia Film Office: Reuters is reporting today that the actor-writer Tim Robbins has gotten a contract to direct a pilot for a new TV drama about a family that runs a pharmaceutical company. He calls it "Possible Side Effects." Hey, imagine the Philadelphia backdrops.

Rolling Stone magazine's annual Hot Scene issue this week calls Philadelphia (for the first time, evidently) a "Hot Scene" for its "diverse, thriving music scene, where everybody knows each other, sounds cross-pollinate and commercialism hasn't intruded on a grassroots DIY ethic." (See PDFs of the print pages here and here). It hails the fact that talents like bassist Peter MoDavis and rapper Spank Rock can thrive musically and financially in a place downright cheap compared to Big Time Hot Scenes like NYC and LA. Call it validation of what some locals knew already. Still, www.Philebrity.com was unimpressed, predicting Baltimore soon will be hotter. Then www.uwishunu.com snapped into action to promote the recognition and called out Philebrity for being "glass half-full" about it, although we suspect it meant half-empty. We'll stay out of it.

- Thomas Ginsberg

Bowling is in Jon Perper's blood. His late father Irvin built Playdrome Woodcrest in 1960 and Jon started working at the alley when he was 13, working his way up from porter to assistant manager. He has expanded his family's bowling business, adding Playdrome Cherry Hill (then known as Erlton Bowl) in 1980. The 52-year-old resident of Mount Laurel now owns another alley in Allentown and manages others in Devon, Pa. and Pennsville, N.J.

But as his career took off, the bowling business changed. Alleys could no longer rely on league bowlers for their revenue and began catering to casual bowlers, who may not know a strike from a split. He believes entrepreneurs today need more capital and have more difficulty getting it than he did. Further complicating the picture for Perper is New Jersey's very controversial smoking ban, passed last year, which he says puts him at a competitive disadvantage to Pennsylvania alleys.

In an interview with Jonathan Berr for PhillyInc, Perper discussed his career, his regrets about not going to college, and his plans to make his flagship location in Cherry Hill more attractive to families.

PhillyInc: What was the biggest lesson you learned from your father?
Perper: [My dad taught me that] even though you might slave away ... the bottom line is that it didn't matter how hard you work. It mattered what the customer saw when they walked in the door. He really knew how to talk to people. He always tried to focus on resolving the issue and not dwelling on problems.

Yaromir Steiner, chief executive officer of the private Ohio-based firm that has managed the Camden Adventure Aquarium for several years, told us some interesting things last week after his Steiner+Associates announced a state-approved deal to hand off most - but not all - of its N.J. aquarium-management subsidiary to Herschend Family Entertainment Corp., which owns Philadelphia's "Ride the Ducks" buses.

Steiner said by phone that he's turning his focus to real estate development and away from running attractions like the Camden facility and another aquarium in Kentucky. (Both were included in the sale to Herschend.) Then Steiner lamented that the Delaware Riverfront boom has not yet materialized, mainly because of stifled development on the Philly side, including the unbuilt river tram. He essentially conceded that the mission of helping Camden got under his skin and it may have infulenced his business decisions.

"What happens is, you get involved in Camden, and you get emotionally attached to it, and it becomes more than a money-making venture," Steiner told us by phone from his home in New Albany, Ohio.

He said he had a tram-related escape clause, but he stuck by the business in Camden hoping for the best. And then he says this: "In retrospect, maybe we would not have done it."

So did he lose money in Camden? Does he regret the aquarium business? "We did not lose money on the deal, but we'll make more money on doing real estate."

Including in Camden. Steiner said he is not done with Camden and reportedly will continue what the Courier Post has called a "potentially lucrative role" as master developer of 27 acres of residential land north of the aquarium. The Inquirer has reported that he's working on a hotel project. But the aquarium business was tough. Steiner, who managed the aquarium through a wholly owned Camden subsidiary, has had his share of controversy including a lot of hand-wringing over his deal and the expansion costs. He came in 2004 when the facility, which is owned by the state of New Jersey, was struggling as the New Jersey State Aquarium and about to close for expansion. The state contracted Steiner's firm to revamp the facility's image and management after expansion. It reopened in 2005 as the Adventure Aquarium, with Steiner paying the state a leasing fee and retaining all door receipts, minus a small share for city taxes. It has clocked more than 2 million visitors at an average ticket price of $16.

But the best laid plans, well, you know. The tram project stalled. The Street administration in Philadelphia couldn't figure out its Penn's Landing strategy. In August Steiner let it be known he wanted to get out of the aquarium-management business. He approached Herschend about taking control of his subsidiary and asked N.J. officials to approve his plan to sell part of the subsidiary to Herschend. Herschend initially wanted full ownership but, according to Steiner, eventually relented and let Steiner keep a small share without control. The state granted its approval in mid-November. Then the deal was sealed and announced on Friday.

Neither Steiner nor CEO Joel Manby of Herschend, of Norcross, Ga. would reveal the value of their transaction. Manby said in the announcement: "We will operate business as usual, with a focus on making the operating transition as smooth and transparent as possible for the Aquariums' guests and employees." And maybe Herschend will run its Ducks buses all the way across the river, so the tram won't be needed anyway.

- Thomas Ginsberg

That Jenny is getting around. In Jenkintown today, one of the most sought-after U.S. postage stamps -- a rare "Inverted Jenny" 24-cent airmail stamp of 1918 -- sold at auction for $230,000. Montgomery County stamp broker John Apfelbaum, who arranged the auction, said the winning bidder was a stamp dealer from Lancaster County, who bought it for a client in the Midwest.

Just last month, a near-perfect condition Inverted Jenny -- so named for its misprinted drawing of the Curtiss JN-4 airplane -- went for $977,500 in New York. And today in Cherry Hill, another Inverted Jenny will be given away by Amy Polumbo, the stand-up-to-blackmail Miss New Jersey, in a drawing sponsored by StampWants.com, which by the way claims its value is around $400,000.

All proof that the collectible stamp business has lately gotten hot. Apfelbaum says, as a rule of thumb, that stamp values have gone up during periods when the broader economy was going south. Or, in Apfelbaum's words, "when there's been a lack of confidence in the government, combined with a cheap dollar internationally."

Apfelbaum, president of Earl P.L. Apfelbaum Inc., said the market's still not as hot as the late 1970s, when "prices went up 400, 500 percent in five years. That's not bad - I should have gotten out then."

Apfelbaum's Inverted Jenny stamp, which was part of a collection that had been amassed by a retired real estate developer from Maryland, had several flaws, including a prominent crease and the absence of some of its original adhesive. He actually had predicted it would fetch between $200,000 and $300,000. "We had a lot of bidders up to about $140,000. And then were two people for up to the $230,000 it sold for," he said.

A little history: The Inverted Jenny was issued to coincide with the first U.S. air mail flights between Washington, Philadelphia and New York. It has long been a high-demand stamp for collectors. Fewer than 100 are in circulation, and with investors flocking to stamps for high-yield returns on equity, it is has become all the more costly in recent months and years.