New York Billionaire Looks to NASCAR Development: Adam Hochfelder has a passion you don’t usually find in the sole owner of a Manhattan commercial real estate empire valued at $2.5 billion: stock-car racing. And now that he’s taken full control of Max Capital Management Corp., he plans to steer it into some unlikely new directions. Like maybe, one day, possibly, someplace, a NASCAR track. “We’ve been looking at development sites to build a retail and entertainment site that could include a facility for NASCAR,” he told the New York Post. Not in the five boroughs, or even necessarily close: For the first time, Max Capital is thinking on a national scale. As CEO, Hochfelder doesn’t take his cues from Jeff Gordon or the sport’s other daredevils. From his 17th-floor office at 230 Park Ave. that was once Harry Helmsley’s, he presides with proper reserve over 300 employees and a portfolio of 7.1 million square feet of Manhattan office space backed by Max Capital’s institutional investors, RMB Realty (owned by the Bass family of Texas), CS First Boston and J.P. Morgan Chase. Hochfelder plans to “expand the Max Capital brand and platform” to other cities. But NASCAR? How did a New York-type guy raised in Old Westbury, L.I., get into a mid-American thing like stock-car racing? “Five or six years ago, I was dragged down to a race by a friend who had all-access passes in the pit,” Hochfelder said with a smile. “It’s easy to get hooked. I fly down to three or four races a year and I hang out with NASCAR teams.”(MotorsportsTV.com)(6-19-2002)
