A Bay Ridge massage parlor is rubbing neighbors — and its clients — the wrong way, say angry Ridgites who claim the business is actually a house of ill repute.
Residents living on Bay Ridge Avenue between Narrows Avenue and Owls Head Court claim that the masseuses at Blue Ocean Spa practice the dark arts of massage — claiming that the facility’s clouded windows, late hours, and all-male clientele is all the proof they need.
“It’s odd for a spa,” said neighbor Victor Pachwo, who says he watches people coming in and out of Blue Ocean from his window late at night. “It’s all men and no women. Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around?”
This paper saw several men entering and leaving the spa when we visited the area last week, yet Blue Ocean workers vehemently denied that anything sexual was going on.
“It’s all lies,” said spa manager Nicole Ree. “We just do massage and acupuncture, nothing sexual.”
Pachwo said the spot is usually open until 11 pm, and that the spa’s frosted glass storefronts aroused his suspicion shortly after he moved into the area three years ago.
But he’s not alone in his assessment: several other residents in his condo building brought up similar concerns at one of their board meetings, he claimed, although they were unsure what to do about it.
But Pachwo has a simple solution: close the business down.
“I don’t think it’s a positive presence on this block,” Pachwo. “I’d really rather it wasn’t here. We have a lot of kids around here.”
His neighbors agreed, claiming that once they saw the spa’s facade, they knew the place was up to no good.
“As a retired police officer, I knew right away what’s going on there. Experience has taught me,” said Daniel Levins, a former Miami cop. “Their clients come down the street, looking this way and that way like they’re trying to find something, acting all innocent, then — bam! — they’re inside.”
The ex-cop also claimed that the girls who work at Blue Ocean are living inside the spa, since he never sees any employees entering or leaving the building.
“At night, they bring the shutters down, and no one comes out,” Levins said. “I’m up at 5, I come out, I have my coffee, the shutters go up, and they open the door. And no one goes in or out.”
Levin said it’s extremely difficult to close a prostitution parlor, so instead of reporting his concerns to the 68th Precinct, he’s been complaining to Blue Ocean’s landlady Alexandra Lazides.
“Shame on her,” Levins said. “I have a hard time believing she doesn’t know what’s going on here.”
Community Board 10 District Manager Josephine Beckmann confirmed that she’d received complaints about the parlor before, and had passed them along to the police. The 68th Precinct did not respond to calls for comment.
Reach reporter Will Bredderman at (718) 260–4507 or e-mail him at wbredderman@cnglocal.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/WillBredderman
