Casa Cipriani New York

A 1906 Ferry Terminal Reborn on the Harbor

At the southern tip of Manhattan, where the Staten Island Ferry still departs and the Financial District gives way to open water, Casa Cipriani occupies the Battery Maritime Building: a Beaux-Arts ferry terminal built in 1906 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1976. French architect Thierry Despont spent years restoring the building before Cipriani's hospitality group turned it into a 47-room hotel, and the result reads less like a conversion than a rediscovery, with the original ironwork and the arched facade left to do most of the talking.

Why It Works

No other hotel in New York occupies a landmark ferry terminal, and that singularity is the point: Casa Cipriani pairs a building the city could never replicate with the kind of service polish the Cipriani name has carried since Harry's Bar in Venice. The interiors lean into the maritime setting rather than away from it, mixing mahogany paneling and Art Deco lines with custom Italian furnishings, so the hotel feels closer to a private yacht club than a conventional city property. It is a small, deliberately exclusive address in a neighborhood with very few of them.

Why This Location

The hotel sits at 10 South Street, a short walk from the Whitehall Street subway station and directly beside the Staten Island Ferry terminal, with the Downtown Manhattan Heliport just beyond. Wall Street and the rest of the Financial District are a few minutes on foot, yet the waterfront position keeps the immediate surroundings quieter than the office towers behind it. Guest rooms and the harbor-facing suites look out toward the Statue of Liberty, Governors Island and the Brooklyn Bridge, a view that belongs more to a ferry crossing than a Manhattan hotel room.

Fast Facts

• Price: €€€€ (Luxe)

• Vibe: maritime, clubby, European, intimate

• Rooms: 47 rooms and suites, some with private balconies

• Best For: couples and solo travelers seeking a discreet luxury stay away from Midtown

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: the harbor-facing suite balconies looking straight at the Statue of Liberty

• Dining: Club Restaurant, Jazz Café, Living Room, 24-hour room service

• Amenities: 15,000-square-foot wellness club, private members' club, concierge

• Attractions: Staten Island Ferry terminal (adjacent), Wall Street (10-minute walk), Battery Park, Brooklyn Bridge views

Inside the Rooms and Suites

Because the hotel is carved out of a landmark building rather than purpose-built, the 47 rooms vary in shape and size, and several are genuinely compact by luxury-hotel standards. What they share is a consistent material language: polished mahogany, deep maritime blue upholstery, brass fixtures and Art Deco detailing, finished with custom Italian furniture rather than off-the-shelf hotel stock. The suite category is where the building's bones pay off most clearly, with private outdoor terraces that put the East River and the Brooklyn Bridge directly outside the window.

Three Tables Under One Roof

Rather than a single signature restaurant, Casa Cipriani spreads its food and drink across three distinct rooms: the Club Restaurant, which opens onto a waterfront terrace for indoor-outdoor seating; the Jazz Café, built around live music and an evening cocktail crowd; and the Living Room, a quieter lounge for coffee by day and drinks by night. The approach lets the hotel shift registers through the day, from breakfast service to a late dinner, without guests ever needing to leave the building.

Before You Book

Casa Cipriani suits travelers who want a small, design-led address with real history behind it, not a hotel built around a pool or a sprawling resort footprint; there is no swimming pool on site, and families in search of one should look elsewhere. Standard rooms can run small given the constraints of a landmarked building, so travelers prioritizing space should ask about the suite category when booking. What the hotel trades in square footage it returns in setting: few New York addresses put the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge in the same sightline as a private members' club.