Amir R. Korangy (born November 21, 1973) is an Iranian-American publisher and film producer, who founded the business magazine, The Real Deal, about real estate and finance news. He also produced the PBS documentary, "Building Stories", about architect Costas Kondylis. Amir Korangy is also an adjunct associate professor of media and real estate at New York University where in the fall of 2018 he will be teaching a course titled the Korangy sessions where graduate students will have an opportunity to court questions as to the reality of real estate in the city and the country, complementing to their theoretical framework.
Korangy was born in Tehran, Iran. After the Islamic Revolution of 1979 his family left Iran as political refugees and spent time in Paris and Madrid before settling in the Washington, D.C., area. Korangy received a BA in Journalism and Foreign Policy at Boston University and attended Emerson College.
Career
After college, Korangy moved to Baja, Mexico where he commenced his career as a publisher. He started South of the Border, a weekly newspaper that targeted expatriates living in Baja. The paper was bought within the first year by the Gringo Gazette, another local newspaper. His next venture was the founding of The Washington Free Press, a weekly tabloid challenging DC's conservative media culture. The Washington Free Press was sold to the Washington City Paper in 1997.
After graduate studies at Emerson College, Korangy moved to New York City in 1999. He worked at Yahoo Inc., and eventually began investing in New York City real estate. These transactions inspired Korangy to recognize a void in that industry for compelling real estate news.
In April 2003 Korangy put out the first edition of The Real Deal from his apartment in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. The Real Deal provides an inside look into the prominent New York real estate market as well as reports national and international market trends. There are also South Florida and Los Angeles editions of The Real Deal available online daily and in print quarterly. The monthly magazine includes an array of news exclusives, wide-ranging interviews, and in-depth analyses for brokers, developers, investors, appraisers, bankers, architects and real estate enthusiasts. The Real Deal has a monthly print readership of 132,000 and a monthly online audience of over 2.6 million visitors and 17 million impressions.
Each year Korangy hosts thousands of real estate professionals at The Real Deal Annual Forum held at Lincoln Center where he introduces and interviews industry luminaries."The Great Debate: A recap of TRD's seventh annual forum". (November 30, 2011). The Real Deal.In September, 2015, Korangy hosted the largest Real Estate Development event in China as well as events in Toronto and South Florida.
In pursuing his interests in film and real estate, Korangy produced Building Stories, a feature documentary on the life of architect, Costas Kondylis, which aired on PBS in 2012. The film features development moguls Donald Trump, Larry Silverstein, and Aby Rosen; founding editor of Dwell magazine, Karrie Jacobs; architecture critics and historians, James Gardner, Francis Morrone, and Kenneth Frampton; and Pritzker Prize-winning architect Richard Meier. In 2015, Korangy authored the book The Closing: Interviews with New York's Titans of Real Estate.
Korangy serves on the board of directors for SalesCrunch.
In the Media
Through his work as publisher of The Real Deal, Korangy has been called upon as an industry expert and has been regularly quoted in publications including The New York Times and Forbes and appeared on news programs on CNN, CNBC, FOX News. and Real Estate with Vince Rocco, VoiceAmerica. Korangy also serves as a thought leader to the print and digital publishing sector by sitting on industry panels for conferences such as Inman Real Estate Connect.