Midtown Equities to take stake in long-delayed Battery Maritime project

The Cayre family’s Midtown Equities is planning to take about a 30 percent stake in the Battery Maritime Building hotel project.

The equity stake would put construction on the conversion project back on track and could be completed in 2020, Crain’s reported.

In June, an official from the development corporation said Midtown Equities plans to issue a mezzanine loan to the project this month. After the deal is closed, the developer will convert the loan position to an equity stake in the roughly $100 million project, the report said. Midtown is expected to split ownership equally with Centaur and Cipriani.

The loan deal is expected to close imminently, Crain’s reported. The team expects construction to resume in the fall or winter, with work expected to last 18 months.

In 2007, a team led by Dermot Company was tapped to convert the structure at 10 South Street. But the company was unable to come up with the capital to finance construction. Last year, a venture between Centaur Properties and Cipriani took over the sublease but again was unable to get construction to resume.

Midtown is expected to split ownership equally with Centaur and Cipriani, according to Crain’s.

Earlier this year, about 150 Chinese nationals who collectively invested $77 million in EB-5 funds into the project sued New York City Regional Center for allegedly misleading them. [Crain’s] — Meenal Vamburkar