April 24: Bike share delayed, operator selected | Concern for Center City | 22 homes proposed in Point Breeze | Navy Yard groundbreaking | Artists rally in City Hall

Hello, Eyes on the Street! Here’s your Thursday news roundup.

The City has selected Bicycle Transit Systems to operate Philly’s bike share program. Bicycle Transit Systems is a Philly-based firm whose team includes “folks who were very involved” in the implementation of the Washington DC, Boston and Chicago bike share systems, MOTU Chief of Staff Andrew Stober told Newsworks. The bicycles and rental stations will be supplied by B-cycle, which supplies 30 other cities across the country. The expected roll out date has been pushed back from fall 2014 to spring 2015. The city will make an official bike share announcement today at 2pm at the foot of the Art Museum steps. 

The Inquirer’s Chris Hepp says there is cause for concern in the “State of Center City” report released this week. He writes that, while the report emphasizes Center City’s importance to Philadelphia, it shows that office rental rates “run stubbornly below national averages” and employment in health care and education have been flattening out. 

Two significant housing developments could be headed for Point Breeze. At 20th and Wharton a proposal is emerging for 22 homes on the site of a vacant warehouse, Passyunk Post reports. This proposal sits across little Woodstock Street from another that intends to build 48 additional homes. Both plans are under contract by OCF Holdings, owned by developer Ori Feibush.

A new 75,000-square-foot building will break ground at the Navy Yard Friday. Philadelphia Business Journal tells us the new building, set to be completed by December, will be US headquarters for Australia-based EcoSave and UK-based Clinigen. WuXi AppTec Inc. will expand its operations in the new location as well. 

An Indian dance troupe, a storyteller, classical music students and other artists performed at City Hall Tuesday to garner support for restoring arts funding in the city. According to Newsworks, the artists and artist representatives like the Philadelphia Culture Fund want to restore arts funding to the 2010 level of $3.2 million. 

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