Exclusive Club Expands Within Landmark Owned By Taxpayers
Community Board 1 (CB1) is asking that the State Liquor Authority reject an application by the operators of the Casa Cipriani Club in the publicly owned Battery Maritime Building (located at 10 South Street, next to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal), over what local leaders say are broken promises about public access to the landmarked building.
At issue is the request by Cipriani South Street—a private club on the upper floors of the building that charges an initiation fee of $2,000, along with $3,900 in annual dues, plus more for food and beverage purchases—to expand its footprint to include part of the fifth floor and all of the sixth floor (encompassing 62 tables and 250 seats, plus the deck surrounding a private pool).
During the June 25 monthly meeting of CB1, Susan Cole, who chairs the Board’s Licensing and Permits Committee, said, “there is nothing, nothing to the community. You can’t even go to the bathroom there.”
CB1 chair Tammy Meltzer added, “this is against their lease. It’s against the law, and against their lease. They have to abide by the agreements that they made with Economic Development Corporation regarding public access and public space and public hours.”
This was a reference to the legally binding contract between the operators of the Cipriani South Street club and their landlords, the New York City Economic Development Corporation.
CB1 member Bruce Ehrmann said, “this building is designated as an interior landmark, a rare case, which requires public access.”
At the June 25 meeting, CB1 enacted a resolution noting that the Board “has been clear and consistent over the years in their opposition to the privatization of the Battery Maritime Building,” and that “CB1 has continually urged the City and Cipriani to allow for more public access to the magnificent and beloved City landmark as is the public’s right, given its landmark status.”
In particular, community leaders want “public access… to public bathrooms daily at the same hour of the Governors Island ferry service,” which is located in an adjacent section of the same building.
The resolution concludes by opposing the granting of a liquor license unless the public is granted full access to public areas including bathrooms, cafe, bar, gallery, and main event space.
More than a decade ago, CB1 opposed plans by the City to expand the 1909 Beaux Art structure to make room for a hotel, but was overruled by the City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, which voted in 2013 to allow the addition of a glass structure to the building’s roof.
On the National Register of Historic Places since 1976, the Battery Maritime Building served for three decades as the gateway for boats taking passengers across the East River, but after commuters and vehicles gained access to Manhattan with the advent of bridges, tunnels, and subways, ferry usage declined and the building fell into disrepair. In recent decades, its sole use was as a berth for ferries taking passengers to and from Governors Island. Starting in the early 2000s, developers and community activists proffered competing visions for the building, with the former advocating commercial uses, such as a hotel and restaurant, and the latter pushing for civic amenities, such as a school or museum.
Over the years, several developers partnered with the EDC to rehabilitate and reopen the Battery Maritime Building, but each went bankrupt. Finally, in 2017, the troubled project was taken over by a partnership led by hospitality firm Cipriani USA, a legendary proprietor of food destinations and event spaces worldwide. That firm’s Lower Manhattan footprint includes two venues carved out of historic building lobbies: Cipriani Wall Street (in the banking hall of the onetime headquarters of National City Bank) and Cipriani 25 Broadway (in the ticketing hall of what was once Cunard’s New York office). The newly branded Casa Cipriani opened in the Battery Maritime Building in the summer of 2021, featuring a hotel, restaurant, private club, and event space.
Among the structure’s more notable features are its Great Hall, a stately 8,500-square foot indoor space with ceilings 34 feet high, and a grand porch that faces Lower Manhattan and is topped by a vaulted ceiling lined with Guastavino tiles. For a time promoted by EDC as the new home of an indoor public market, the Great Hall was later reimagined as an event venue and community facility.
Since opening in 2021, Casa Cipriani has hosted only a handful of events in the Great Hall. These included the Independent Art Fair, which charged $55 for admission. No free public or community events have yet been held at the Battery Maritime Building, nor have plans for any been announced.