Sixteen Years Later, Battery Maritime Building Offers Free Event Space to Community Groups
Operators of a publicly owned landmark, the Battery Maritime Building, are taking steps toward living up to an assurance first offered to Lower Manhattan residents in 2007, by making space within the structure available for public use.
At the November 21 meeting of the Waterfront, Parks, and Cultural Committee of Community Board 1 (CB1), Alexandra Lee, the catering and cultural events coordinator at Cipriani, the operator that leases the building from the City, issued a call for non-profit and community-based organizations to apply to use the building’s Great Hall (a majestic 8,500-square foot space, with ceilings 34 feet high, lined with Gustavino tiles), free of charge. “Some ideas we have include movie nights, or maybe local high schools or grassroots organizations hosting events,” she continued. “Artistic or musical groups could also use the building as a place to perform and showcase their work, in ways that they wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do before.”
The Battery Maritime Building, at 10 South Street, next to the Staten Island Ferry, is a landmarked Beaux Arts ferry terminal erected in 1909. Its three slips were used by boats taking passengers across the East River to Brooklyn for three decades, but after commuters and vehicles gained direct access to Manhattan with the advent of bridges, tunnels, and subways, ferry usage declined and the building fell into disrepair. For decades, its sole use has been as a berth for ferries taking passengers to and from Governors Island.
Starting in 2007, a succession of developers partnered with the City’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC)—a non-profit corporation that negotiates partnerships designed to harness private-sector resources to public projects—to rehabilitate and reopen the Battery Maritime Building, but each went bankrupt. Each of these ventures was accompanied by a promise that space within the structure—and particularly its Great Hall, which was originally touted by EDC as the home of a new indoor, public market (see rendering above), but later reimagined as an event venue and community facility—would be available as a public amenity.
Finally, in 2017, the troubled project was taken over by a partnership led by hospitality firm Cipriani USA, a 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 launched with a “soft opening” in the Battery Maritime Building in the summer of 2021, featuring a hotel, restaurant, private club, and event space.
Since then, there have been very few free, public events held in the Battery Maritime Building. This may be on the verge of changing. Ms. Lee explained that in addition to offering the Great Hall (current photo at left)—with a capacity for up to 1,100 people—to qualified applicants free of charge, further services such as security, and audio/video support would be provided at cost, with no markup.
CB1 chair Tammy Meltzer said, “we were told there’d be a cafe, a first-floor gallery, as well as occasional use of the mezzanine outdoors, and bathrooms that would be open for public use.”
Max Padden, a senior vice president at Midtown Equities (one of the firms that has partnered with Cipriani to manage the Battery Maritime Building) replied, “yes, no, yes, and yes. The only correction is that there’s no gallery space. Instead, we’ve talked about programming the Great Hall as gallery space that the public can come into and check out the art at their leisure.” He added that the public are also welcome to explore the building upon request, “with a chaperone.”
Ms. Meltzer continued, “it feels very privatized. There is no signage that says that there is a public cafe inside anywhere that I have seen. And to be escorted feels a little security-esque, versus being told, ‘yes, of course, come in, and grab a cup of coffee at the cafe.’”
Mr. Padden replied, “we can certainly talk with the team about wayfinding and things of that nature.”
Ms. Lee added that more information, as well as an online application form for community groups to use the Great Hall, can be found by browsing https://www.batterymaritimebuilding.org/.