Chinatown Raid Finds Hazardous E-Bike Charging & Maze of Vice

Call it notes from the underground, the Chinatown Real Estate edition.

That’s one way to summarize the results of a multi-agency city raid of the basement of two six-story connected apartment buildings at 118 and 120 Elizabeth St. that took place on Sept. 16.

”What our Fire Prevention members found on Tuesday was a disaster waiting to happen,” said FDNY Commissioner Robert S. Tucker. “Illegal living conditions and unsafe [lithium ion] battery charging can create deadly conditions for residents and for firefighters responding to emergencies. Every complaint we investigate has the potential to save lives, and this inspection was one of them.”

Participating in the operation were FDNY Bureau of Fire Prevention (BFP), NYPD, and the Department of Buildings (DOB). The two six-story conjoined buildings with a common basement are located about mid-block on the east side of Elizabeth Street between Grand and Broome Streets.

When constructed in the early 1900s, this block was firmly within the confines of Little Italy. Today it stands as something of a buffer, or transition block, between the reassuringly frenetic Chinatown of Grand Street, including what might be called the Chinese pharmacy district, and the luxury vibes of upscale SoHo.

At present, 118 and 120 Elizabeth St. lean strongly toward the Chinatown side. On the ground floor of the latter building, with the address 120B Elizabeth, is the Sun Shine Day Spa, Inc. Its largely yellow and blue awning advertises foot rub, foot reflexology, and body rub in both English and Chinese. A sign on the door, which along with the store’s picture window is covered with muscle charts and stock massage photos, offers a rate of $45 for an hour, reduced from $50. A hand-written cardboard sign on a fence around a cellar door warns no bicycles—which suggests whoever put the sign there wasn’t happy with the e-bike situation themselves.

The space that seems to be 120A Elizabeth has both a clairvoyant sign and an store & apartment for rent sign outside it. Whether the clairvoyant knew an FDNY inspection was coming is unclear.

At 118 Elizabeth is a print and copy shop with signage in both English and Chinese. Here there’s also a makeshift corral with numerous e-bikes parked outside.

According to the city records, both buildings have the same owner, Jing Cheng Realty, Inc., Jingquan Li, Head Officer, of 7 Allen St. in Manhattan’s Chinatown.

Besides the potentially deadly e-bike batteries, upon further inspection cops found a makeshift gambling parlor with slot machines, and a storage space filled with counterfeit designer bags and accessories. Even more: They discovered a room lined with beds, suggesting illegal living quarters.

While neither of the gambling nor counterfeit-goods findings can be considered surprising, the discovery of the counterfeit bags is cause to note the confluence of aggressive West African bootleg fashion vendors on and near Canal Street and their more discreet Chinese women who advertise themselves with menu-board-style signs and act as steerers to nearby shops.

When it was all over, the DOB side issued a partial vacate order for the cellar spaces of both buildings, and NYPD Vice confiscated the gambling equipment and counterfeit items. BFP also issued two FDNY summons and two Criminal Summonses to 118 and 120 Elizabeth St.

Said Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Kaz Daughtry on Instagram, “This was a tragedy waiting to happen. Outstanding work by our inspectors for shutting it down before lives were lost.

“New Yorkers: if you see unsafe conditions or illegal battery charging—report it to 311. Your call could save lives.”