KMI owner also owns College Point spa

From the Times Ledger:

Civic leaders are watching a proposed spa for College Point after a notorious hot sheets motel in Kew Gardens Hills owned by the developer was shut down last week in relation to prostitution charges.

The Queens district attorney announced last Thursday that two alleged flop houses were padlocked and five motel employees were arrested following a police raid. One of the hotels caught in the sting was the Kew Motor Inn, which belongs to Kwang Nam Park.

Park also owns a property in College Point that he has been trying to turn into a spa with the endorsement of state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside).

“Obviously, this concerns me greatly,” Avella said. “My support for the spa was on the condition that everything is done legally. If it is proved that this individual is connected to what goes on at the hotel, that raises serious questions.”

Avella specifically noted only employees have been charged at this point, and Park himself has not been implicated. Avella said he would contact Brown’s office to investigate.

SHOCKING NEWS: Kew Motor Inn a hooker haven!

From the Village Voice:

The Kew Motor Inn, located in a residential section of Kew Gardens, according to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, was a "haven" for hookers and their pimps. So was the Par Central Motor Inn, which also is located in a residential area of Kew Gardens.

Thanks to the city's "nuisance abatement" laws, however, the alleged hooker havens are no mas -- they were shut down earlier this week after five motel employees were arrested on multiple hooker harboring-related offenses.

(It should be noted that each of these establishments boasts a Yahoo! travel rating of "one star" and "three star" respectively).

"These two motels have been deemed public nuisances that have generated numerous prostitution-related arrests - including those involving underage girls - during the past year and have been the subject of numerous complaints from local residents," Brown explains as the reasons for shutting down the two hooker sanctuaries.