April 11: Bill to sell PGW on hold | Union leader returns to DRPA board | Navy Yard unveils hotel | Marketplace Design Center sells for $42M | #unblockbikelanes results | N3RD Street designation

You’ve made it through the week, Streeters. Happy Friday!

City Council did not introduce Mayor Nutter’s bill proposing the sale of Philadelphia Gas Works yesterday. The Daily News reports that Council President Darrell Clarke sent a letter to all council members expressing concerns about language in the bill that requires documentation to be given to the Public Utility Commission within 60 days of the bill’s introduction. That detail causes concern that PUC may come to its own conclusion prior to Council’s deliberation. 

Philadelphia union leader John Dougherty Jr. is returning to the Delaware River Port Authority board. According to The Inquirer, Dougherty had a history of warring with now resigned DRPA chief executive John Matheussen and for urging DRPA to try to sell PATCO. Dougherty was appointed by Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale. 

The Philadelphia Navy Yard unveiled its first hotel, a 172-room Courtyard by Marriott. The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that the hotel has 1,800 square feet of meeting space, a restaurant and bar and a Starbucks. 

Marketplace Design Center at 2400 Market Street sold for $42 million. The new owner has big, but still preliminary, plans to convert the property. According to the Business Journal, the new owner hopes to keep the lower floors as Marketplace Design Center while adding ground-floor retail space with room for a grocery store, restaurant and coffee shop. Plans may include adding an extension on the roof for residential space or creating some sort of rooftop outdoor oasis. 

Results from the Philadelphia Parking Authority’s #unblockbikelanes Twitter campaign are in. This winter, PPA asked people to report blocked bike lanes using that Twitter hashtag. The goal was to identify which bike lanes are most often blocked. The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia partnered with PPA on the initiative and shared that since December, 55 complaints were generated for 20 different streets. Since December, PPA and the Philadelphia Police Department have written 264 tickets for parking in bike lanes. 

The city has started installing N3RD Street street signs along the North Third Street corridor nicknamed for its high concentration of tech and marketing companies. A Technically Philly reader snapped a photo of City crews installing the street’s new name plates. N3RD Street will be official designated at a celebration today. 

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