DOB Busts Secret Chinatown Hotel Posing As Art Gallery

Christopher Robbins

Published Jan 13, 2014

Modified May 5, 2014

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Christopher Robbins

Published Jan 13, 2014

Modified May 5, 2014

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Guests of an illegal hotel that doubled as an art gallery in Chinatown were vacated by the DOB last week, when frigid temperatures gripped the city due to the polar vortex. The DOB's website states that 171-173 Canal held "4 SRO'S," (Single Room Occupancy units) and that a partial vacate order was served on January 8.

The rooms in the fifth floor walkup were shaped "like round tubes," a tipster and former resident of the hotel named Matthieu wrote in an email. "Some rooms you could not stand up in at all." Rent ranged from $1,700 to $1,100, per month, plus incidentals and cleaning charges. The rooms were advertised openly on Les Frenchy, and the photos above were sent to potential renters when they asked for more pictures before booking.

Matthieu says that The Collective Gallery, sitting on the first floor, was available only by appointment following the opening night for a show. According to the gallery's website, it hasn't hosted any work in a little over a year.

Of the gallery's curator and the hotel's purporter proprietress, "Madam V", Matthieu says, "She would call the lofts her 'chateaus.' She would always say, 'I like to be where I'm not supposed to be.'"

A woman who answered the phone at The Collective Gallery declined to comment. Bowery Boogie has a good shot of the building's exterior.

Tagged

canal street

chiantown

illegal hotels

sros

Christopher Robbins

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Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.

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