NEW YORK CITY-It’ll be Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital, not Starwood Hotels as originally reported, that will take over development of the Donnell Library site in Midtown in a partnership with Tribeca Associates. Orient-Express Hotels Ltd., which originally agreed to buy the site from the New York Public Library for $59 million in 2007, said Monday it would assign its purchase and development agreements to the Starwood Capital/Tribeca partnership.

Starwood Capital and Tribeca will reimburse Orient-Express for all previous payments on the Donnell site, located on West 53d Street across from the Museum of Modern Art, according to a release. The partnership plans a $400-million hotel-condominium project and, as stipulated by the original agreement between the library and Orient-Express, a new library to replace the now-closed Donnell branch.

Paul White, president and CEO of Bermuda-based Orient-Express says in a statement that although “economic circumstances” prevented his company from pursuing the development, “we are delighted to see the project going ahead. We are pleased to recover our deposits, which will further help strengthen our balance sheet.”

A spokeswoman for the library says in a statement that the organization is pleased that Greenwich, CT-based Starwood Capital and locally based Tribeca are moving forward “on the terms of the existing contract, including the construction timetable,” which calls for a June 2014 delivery date on a new library facility. “We will receive the full sale proceeds and are excited that we will have a wonderful new library in that location in the shortest time possible.”