The Alexander brothers are on trial.
Former top brokers Oren and Tal and their brother, Alon, face federal charges of sex trafficking. They have pleaded not guilty. If convicted, each faces 15 years to life.
For the month of February, the lower Manhattan courtroom has become the center of the action for the brothers, as well as the diverse group pulled together by the proceedings: judge, jury, victims, victims’ lawyers, the press, three individual defense teams, a crisis communications strategist and the Alexanders’ family.
Ellen Cranley, Katherine Kallergis and Sheridan Wall, the journalists who broke the story a year and a half ago for The Real Deal, have a guide to the trial and its characters. You can follow their coverage daily and subscribe to a limited-series newsletter about the trial, Court Report, on TRD’s website.
Could any verdict close the curtain again across a window that victims’ testimony has opened? It remains to be seen, but we’ll be covering any effects on the culture of real estate, brokerage and what comes next.
Elsewhere in the issue, we cover the players confronting the next inflection point in the cycle, or at least hoping to find it. Ever since the Federal Reserve started raising interest rates in 2022, industry pros have had mantras like, “survive ’til ’25” and “let it rip in ’26.” Well, it’s the second month of 2026, and the cycle now sometimes seems to spin so slowly that all the contingencies (distress, high rates, tough underwriting) are just the water in which everyone’s swimming.
Take Igor Gabal, buyer of a Chicago building that seemed like a brilliant deal for a location near the Loop, with intact 1920s architectural detailing and a 90 percent discount from its previous trade. But he hasn’t made inroads on occupancy, updates or rebranding in the two years since closing. Reporter Emma Whalen details the obstacles in trying to find silver linings of distress.
Or, the duo behind Cirrus Real Estate, who picked up the debt, and then the train sites, on the troubled Pacific Park in Brooklyn. They now propose finishing the job with 6,000 units, double what had originally been planned. But that’s not all. The relatively unknown company, which specialized in issuing rescue capital, wants to build another 50,000-odd units and prove that using union pension funds to finance affordable housing built with union labor is an idea that can catch on and scale. Read Kathryn Brenzel’s story here.
Also in Chicago, Bureau Chief Sam Lounsberry looks at the group of out-of-state investors who descended on South Side multifamily buildings and drove up valuations during a frothy period of demand. Now, many buildings are in foreclosure, the distress providing clues to what went on behind the scenes and the players — some tied to a national mortgage fraud scandal — who bought and sold.
The other big economic thread influencing real estate is consumer behavior, and consumers don’t find home-buying affordable at all. One government solution is for the public sector to make it easier for developers to build, or maybe even forcing towns and cities to let them.
In California, after the first win by a developer in a so-called builder’s remedy case, the balance among local governments, developers and residents is shifting, as some developers gear up and some towns fight back. Read that story here.
Meanwhile, in Boca Raton, after the government approved Terra and Frisbie Group as developers on the update of a prime 30-acre patch of city-owned land, a group of organized locals gave the developers a run for their money, hurling accusations at council meetings, producing an AI-generated video of bulldozers plowing beloved banyan trees and forcing a referendum on the project, scheduled for March 10. Reporter Kate Hinsche draws out the story of those who “didn’t want to be part of the wave,” aka the generational real estate boom in South Florida,
Also in the issue, reporter Jake Indursky charts Robert Reffkin’s course, now that the acquisition of Anywhere Real Estate, valued at $4 billion, has closed and Compass’ leader is seeking “not just … to be the number one brokerage in the country, but the number one real estate destination,” as Indursky writes.
And, perhaps most closely watched of all, Mayor Zohran Mamdani took office in New York City last month and immediately came out swinging against an old enemy: landlords. Reporter Sheridan Wall gets into the slights, and finds the potential bright spots for the real estate-mayoral relationship. Meanwhile, Senior Reporter Keith Larsen profiles Zohar Levy, a landlord who, by picking up a portfolio of rent-stabilized apartment units, ended up right in Mamdani’s crosshairs.
In addition to the magazine this month, we have our 140-page Data Book, our collection of real estate stats and facts for TRD’s major markets across the country. New this year is a listing of the top 25 real estate people in each market. The Data Book is online and downloadable at our research portal, TRD Data, therealdeal.com/data/data-books.
Hope you enjoy the issue!