Veteran RE reporter S. Jhoanna Robledo dies

She was a long-time columnist for NY Mag and was the EIC of Brick Underground

S. Jhoanna Robledo (Credit: Brick Underground)
S. Jhoanna Robledo (Credit: Brick Underground)

S. Jhoanna Robledo, a fixture in New York City real estate and the editor-in-chief of Brick Underground, died on Wednesday.

Robledo became editor-in-chief of Brick Underground in 2015, after serving as an unofficial advisor to the website for nearly a decade. As the website’s “chief muse,” she ran the site’s podcast on the trials and tribulations that buyers and renters face in the city and spearheaded the creation of the website’s Immigrant New York column, according to an obituary posted by Brick Underground on Thursday.

“She had an insatiable interest in real estate — from architecture to demystifying the process of renting, buying and living in it,” Brick Underground said of Robledo. “She never tired of poring through listings, in part because as a perpetual NYC renter, she was always on the lookout for the right apartment to buy—one possessing the perfect combination of character, good bones, and family-friendliness—much like Jho herself.”

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Robledo was a long-time columnist for New York Magazine, where her musings on real estate included insider’s guides to neighborhoods on the rise, a look at what it’s like to live in architectural masterpieces and the hazards of investing in real estate with family members.

She graduated from Columbia University’s Journalism School in 1995. She was born in 1970 and grew up in Manila and Hong Kong.

Last month, Robledo posted on Facebook that she’d been diagnosed with cancer. She is survived by her husband and three children. [Brick Underground]Kathryn Brenzel