Developer tells ‘Real’ story

DEVELOPER and convicted scammer Adam Hochfelder claims real estate news site the Real Deal tried to strong-arm him into buying advertising and giving them scoops — and then “spreading false allegations against him” because he refused.

On Tuesday, Page Six reported that Hochfelder had showed up at the Real Deal’s office in an attempt to get them to kill an exposé about him. But, on Wednesday, Philippe Chow owner Hochfelder told us that the site was only working up the tell-all — and spreading gossip about him — as revenge for snubbing their “aggressive” advertising advances.

He claimed that the Real Deal publisher

Amir Korangy sent an ad rep “to my office to aggressively pitch us to spend money” and that Korangy himself “also asked me to lunch three times and invited me to the Miami Real Deal event to speak and advertise.”

He also claimed that Korangy “gave me the cell [numbers of ] three writers and asked us to call them before the NY Post and before the [real estate news site] Commercial Observer when we closed deals.”

Hochfelder — who previously served prison time for scamming banks, friends and family out of more than $20 million — told us that “when we refused all of their aggressive demands, they started a campaign of false allegations.”

Hochfelder’s general counsel and partner of Merchants Hospitality, Richard Cohn, added, “the bottom line is that the Real Deal was upset that we would not advertise with them, and we continued to give . . . The Post all of our exclusive real estate stories. It looks like [Page Six] got used, and we got hurt.”

Korangy told us: “To suggest that the Real Deal would commission a critical piece about someone who refused to do business with us or give us scoops is totally disingenuous, and our 17-year track record speaks for itself.” He said that the company keeps “a strict divide between our journalism and advertising” and that the exposé will “speak for itself.”