At the Park Avenue Country Club on the corner of Park Avenue South and 27th Street, Steve Schmelk said he and his partners knew the area was pretty seedy when they opened the business in 1992. They did not, however, realize that the restaurant was in the heart of a sex-for-hire district that spans the area between 26th and 32nd streets, from Lexington to Park avenues.

For about five years’ business suffered, he said. “It was really bad for a long time,” Mr. Schmelk said, with sex acts being performed just outside the restaurant’s windows.

Police moved in and drove the prostitution out for a time, and gentrification altered the flavor of the neighborhood. The prostitutes have returned, however, according to several people who work in the Gramercy neighborhood.

In the past year, “It’s been back pretty strong,” Mr. Schmelk said.

On Saturday, in a move to abate the problem, police conducted a sting. Between 1 and 3 a.m., with two undercover officers posing as prostitutes at Park Avenue South and 27th Street, police arrested 14 men and confiscated two vehicles, the authorities said. The men ranged in age from 19 to 60 and hailed from all over the country, police officials said.

By late Sunday, at least eight of the suspects pleaded guilty, mostly to disorderly conduct, the district attorney’s office said.

The front office manager at Hotel Giraffe on 26th Street, Christopher Kallan, said that while he speculates that some of the hotel guests make a living as prostitutes, they look like other guests and the hotel has never experienced any problems as a result of their stay.

One prostitute, Mr. Kallan said, is a regular customer at the hotel. He described the woman’s routine: She arrives midday, elegantly dressed, checks in, retreats to her room, and descends in the elevator to the lobby. She meets the customer in the elevator and they disappear to the hotel room for between 30 minutes and two hours, Mr. Kallan said. The woman pays for the room, generally at the end of their stay, in cash. Rooms there can cost as much as $525.

The prostitution business has been a nuisance, however, to many residents living in The Ascot on 28th Street off Park Avenue, according to an employee there, who declined to be identified by name. As many as 15 prostitutes cruise by the building at night in groups of two or three, he said. A greater source of anguish to some of the female residents is the pimps, he said. They congregate on the corner and howl as women walk by, he said.