Alta Bicycle Share, which launched citi bike, the world's largest bike sharing program in New York, wil relocate to New York City under new ownership.
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Portland-based Alta Bicycle Share will be acquired by a New York company and will relocate to New York City to be run by a new CEO, under an agreement announced Tuesday.
Alta has launched bike-share programs in nine cities including New York, Chicago, Seattle and Melbourne, Australia. It also has plans to start a program in Portland.
It's Citi Bike program in New York has been losing money and struggling to cover its costs over the past year.
The newly-formed investment company Bikeshare Holdings LLC announced the acquisition, noting that it will bring "fresh capital to the company, allowing Alta to improve the customer experience as it expands operations to serve more riders."
The company did not disclose the value of the transaction. It was not immediately clear how the company's move to New York would impact Alta's Portland work force.
Bikeshare Holdings includes the CEOs of the fitness company Equinox and New York real estate firm Related Companies. Private investor Jonathan Schulhof led the acquisition.
Under the agreement, transportation executive Jay Walder will become the new CEO of Alta Bicycle Share. Walder was recently the CEO of the transit company MTR corporation in Hong Kong. He has also worked as a partner at the consulting firm McKinsey & Company in London.
In a news release, Walder said bike sharing is becoming an increasingly "necessary ingredient of urban life." He called Citi Bike "a national model" for improving quality of life and promoting sustainability.
"We see a tremendous opportunity to leverage private investment capital and build highly engaging corporate and media relationships to create and enhance bike share partnerships in key urban environments,” he said.
Under Bikeshare Holdings, Alta is entering a new contract with the city of New York to expand the Citi Bike program. The company will add 6,000 bicycles to its system.
In a statement, the founders of Alta, including Michael Jones, Mia Birk, Steve Durrant, George Hudson, Brett Hondorp and Jeff Olson said they are "thrilled" about the acquisition.
"The investors of Bikeshare Holdings LLC bring experience, commitment, and passion equal to ours in spreading the benefits of bicycle transportation far and wide," they said. "As we ourselves are ‘change agents’ in our work on sustainable transportation, we embrace the changes that Bike Share LLC will bring to Alta, to our communities, and to our future.”
Dylan Rivera, spokesman for the Portland Bureau of Transportation, said the acquisition doesn't change the city's contract with Alta to start a bike share program in Portland, but the timeline for launching that program is still unclear.
"We continue to engage in ongoing monitoring of bike share programs around the country, learning more about what makes a bike share program successful or less so," he said. "We congratulate Bikeshare Holdings LLC and Alta, but their announcement does not change our approach."
