DO: Urban Bike Project gets new home in Wilmington

Cross-posted from Delaware Online

After searching for a new home for six months, the Urban Bike Project is moving into new space in a historic city-owned building that once housed Wilmington’s police horses.

The 6,440-square-foot location at 1500 N. Walnut St. will give the group more space and greater visibility in the community, while not straying far from its 3-year-old home off North Market near East 19th and Race streets, leaders said.

“The building we’re currently in didn’t pass inspection, and it’s slated for demolition. We started looking in the spring of this year when we learned we’d need to move,” Executive Director Laura Wilburn said.

The opportunity to lease the Walnut Street building came out of discussions with the city, which had last leased the space to the now-inactive Urban Environmental Center, said Michael Leventry, a planner for the city and co-chair of the group Bike Wilmington.

“We’re excited about having a much larger space, so that we can have more flexibility in how we use the space and in how many people we are able to serve,” Wilburn said. The fenced-in property also offers “lots of possibilities for programming and events that utilize the outdoor space, once the weather gets nice.”

The Urban Bike Project began six years ago and now serves roughly 500 people a year, providing educational programming and mechanical assistance to city residents and youth.  [Full article ...]