World Cafe Live has filed for bankruptcy and changed its name

World Cafe Live has filed for bankruptcy protection and is changing its name.

The University City music venue has been embattled since last spring, shortly after a new management team headed by Joseph Callahan took over from founder Hal Real.

Now the venue is having a particularly busy week. On Tuesday, it filed for Chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. It followed that with new social media branding and a website that introduces the venue’s new name: World Stage.

These are just the latest episodes in what has been nearly a year’s worth of turmoil since Callahan’s leadership team arrived in May.

The bankruptcy filing and name change may seem like another sign of the downward spiral of a venue that has served as an artistic and cultural hub in West Philadelphia for over two decades. But management is spinning it as a new beginning.

The new website at WorldStage.Live — where WorldCafelive.com now redirects, as of Thursday morning — announces “The Stage Is Set.” And that the venue is “Preserving live experiences. Empowering artists. Philadelphia’s new chapter in live music.”

To enter the World Stage website and view a calendar of coming shows, users must register with an email address and phone number.

“This institution didn’t come out of a board room, it came out of a conviction that Philadelphia deserved a world class music venue that answered to the city, not to shareholders … the name changes. The work doesn’t,” the website reads.

The name change reset comes during a crucial week for the venue, with its future in danger.

Last month, a CEASE OPERATIONS — STOP WORK ORDER notice was taped to the entrance of the venue “by order of the Department of Revenue” of the City of Philadelphia, citing a “serious tax violation.”

The deadline for the venue to come to terms with the city was Wednesday.

LiveConnections.org, the music education nonprofit that is the parent company of World Cafe Live, and Real Entertainment Philadelphia LLC both filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Tuesday.

A bankruptcy filing can delay enforcement of a stop work order.

The filing was first reported by the Philadelphia Business Journal. Neither Callahan nor J. Sean Diaz, who has been the World Cafe Live’s CEO and president since September, responded to a request for comment in time for publication.

Diaz, an entertainment lawyer and artist manager whom Callahan has authorized to execute the bankruptcy filing, told the Business Journal in a statement that the venue has no plans to close.

Diaz wrote that Chapter 11 “provides a responsible framework to restructure the organization, attract new capital, and ensure that this important cultural institution continues to serve artists and audiences for years to come.”

On the new website, Diaz is quoted saying: “World Stage isn’t just about the music, it’s about the heartbeat of the City. … We’re not only preserving legacy, we’re amplifying the next generation of artists.”

Real Entertainment LLC is named after Real, who founded World Cafe Live in 2004 and was CEO until stepping down and making way for Callahan, an entrepreneur and technologist with plans to turn the venue into a virtual reality hub. Real converted the venue, whose downstairs Music Hall holds 650 and upstairs Lounge has a capacity of 220, to nonprofit status in 2018.

In an email to The Inquirer this week, a spokesperson for the Department of Revenue said that, because of confidentially laws, it could not comment on specific tax cases or say whether the World Cafe Live had paid its delinquent tax bill.

» READ MORE: World Cafe Live CEO says there is ‘zero probability’ of the venue closing as staff moves to unionize

The bankruptcy filings state that the nonprofit “is unable to pay its debts as they mature” making it “necessary for the company to reorganize.” It adds that “Joseph Callahan, sole member of the Company” has resolved that “it is in the best interests to reorganize” and “seek relief under chapter 11” of the U.S., bankruptcy code.

The debts of the World Cafe Live are ample.

The bankruptcy filing lists both LiveConnections.org assets and liabilities as between $1 and S10 million and details over $2.4 million owed to 20 creditors.

Those include: $563,142 to the Delaware Valley Regional Economic Development Fund; $205,496 to the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue; and $154,915 to the University of Pennsylvania, World Cafe Live’s landlord that owns the building at 3025 Walnut St.

That building also houses Penn radio station WXPN-FM (88.5), which is a separate business.

In July, Penn served the World Cafe Live with an eviction notice over what it claimed was $1.29 million of unpaid rent and utilities dating to 2022, beginning during Real’s tenure as CEO. World Cafe Live countersued, and the venue has remained open as the case continues.

Other creditors include Nashville songwriter Ruston Kelly, who played the Music Hall in October (and is owed $10,000), and the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, owed $15,145.61.

In November, World Cafe Live’s liquor license lapsed for a period of several weeks due to unpaid fees. During that time, WXPN’s Free at Noon shows moved to Ardmore Music Hall, while shows went on at World Cafe Live on a BYO basis — ticket holders were charged a $20 fee if they wanted to drink their own booze during a show.

In the short term at least, WXPN’s Free at Noon shows have not announced any plans to move again. On Friday, Canadian power-pop band New Pornographers and Philadelphia songwriter Alex Savoth are both scheduled to perform in shows presented by the station during the noon hour.

World Cafe Live has been wracked with labor strife since workers walked out during a Suzanne Vega concert last May, complaining of “unfair treatment” and light paychecks.

Labor peace seemed to be achieved during a rowdy town hall in July, when then-World Cafe Live president Gar Giles said the company agreed to collective bargaining with production and front-of-house workers who unionized with IATSE Local 8 and UNITE HERE Local 274.

But in the fall, labor organizers said the venue reneged on that promise.

Last week, former World Cafe Live workers who are organized online as Save World Cafe Live delivered a petition to the office of Ed Datz, Penn’s executive director of real estate, calling on the university to retain the former staff “if and when the current operators are evicted.”

For now, shows are listed on the calendar though June. This weekend, the Day 26 R&B Experience Tour with Avery Wilson and Bianca Bonnie is scheduled to play in the Music Hall on Friday night and a real estate seminar called “the Wealthy Experience” is scheduled for Saturday afternoon.

Elizabeth & the Catapult is scheduled for April 11, a George Harrison tribute play April 18, and Martha Wash is on June 27.

Staff writer Erin McCarthy contributed to this article.