Ahmad confessed he set the fire because he was upset that the donut shop had started selling other food, including fried chicken, last month, sources said.

The doughnut store was gutted and Ahmad’s business damaged.

A new owner, Mike Chhor, had been set to take over the doughnut store yesterday.

Chhor, who paid $25,000 for the business, watched as it went up in flames.

Fire Marshals Michael Durkin and Robert Cristadoro reported finding a juice container and spray can that reeked of gasoline inside Ahmad’s restaurant. They also spotted a hole in the wall dividing the two shops.

But when an employee at Gotham City discovered his body Saturday night, he left to call for help, the sources said.

Guy Montgomery, 25, then allegedly made his move. He rummaged through the dead man’s pants and grabbed cash, the sources said. He then opened the booth — one of 20 at the parlor — and darted toward the door.

Cops arrived just in time to arrest Montgomery as the he made his exit from the Eighth Avenue peepshow palace.

The man, Kouadio Kouassi, 46, filed a deed with the city showing himself as the hotel’s owner, but it was not processed because it lacked signatures, officials said.

When Mr. Kouassi returned to see if he had been declared the rightful owner, a Department of Finance employee believed something suspicious was afoot and notified the city Department of Investigation.

But, apparently undaunted and bent on claiming the prized property, Mr. Kouassi returned several more times to get his deed processed, officials said.

City investigators contacted the hotel’s true owners, the Hartz Group, which said it had never heard of Mr. Kouassi and had no intention of giving him the hotel, valued at $76 million, according to city records.

“We think that since we bought the land, built the hotel and have run it for 12 years that we actually own the hotel,” said Ron Simoncini, a spokesman for Hartz.

. . .

Dennis Almodovar, 24, walked in to the 109th Precinct station house with his lawyer yesterday morning and was questioned for several hours before being charged with burglary.

But the whereabouts of $30,000 in checks and cash stolen from St. Mel Roman Catholic Church in Flushing remains a mystery.

Daniel Morales, of 246 Bergen St., Brooklyn, was charged with burglary. Detectives released no details of the investigation while they tried to close in on a second man.

Earlier, the Rev. Christopher Turczany urged parishioners to cancel Christmas checks they’d donated and make new contributions.

“We were just about breaking even. This interrupts the positive cash flow. That’s what’s really difficult. We are choking financially,” he said.