The Real Deal editorial team brought home nine journalism awards from the National Association of Real Estate Editors for its in-depth coverage of the industry in 2018.
“With eye-catching artwork, design and photography, The Real Deal delivers sophisticated coverage, stylishly written, of the people and deals that drive New York City real estate,” judges wrote of the publication’s June 2018 New York issue, which won a gold award for best commercial real estate trade magazine. The issue included a candid and lengthy Q&A with Charlie Kushner, an investigation into New York City’s increasing residential foreclosures, and a data dive on the city’s swelling condo inventory.
TRD also received two awards for best residential real estate trade magazine story. Senior reporter E.B. Solomont received top prize for “The death of the brokerage,” which explored the storm of challenges residential brokers have faced over the last few years. The article followed Solomont and editor-at-large Hiten Samtani’s scoop on the collapse of a once high-flying agency. That story, “Town Residential shutting down sale, leasing business,” received an honorable mention in the breaking news category.
Also in the residential category, reporter Alex Nitkin claimed the first award for TRD Chicago, which launched in April 2018. Nitkin took home silver for “Is @properties scaling up or selling out?” which analyzed why one of the city’s biggest residential brokerages would sell a portion of itself to a private equity firm.
The awards were announced Friday in Austin, at NAREE’s annual conference.
TRD South Florida reporter Keith Larsen won the gold for best commercial real estate trade magazine story. His piece, “A little Arkansas bank is funding much of SoFla’s condo boom. What could go wrong?” examined how Bank of the Ozarks funded $1.2 billion in construction loans in the Miami metropolitan area over a four-year period. With just over $22 billion in assets, the Arkansas bank was the largest lender in Miami-Dade County, funding developers for the city’s biggest and most ambitious condo projects.
The New York team snagged several more awards.
Kathryn Brenzel won the silver in the commercial category for “The anatomy of construction corruption.” Brenzel showed how graft has for decades crept its way through a network of middlemen in New York’s $45 billion construction industry.
David Jeans and former TRD reporters Konrad Putzier and Christian Bautista — and freelancer Nancy Carvajal — were cited in the investigative category for their story that probed the lengths CoStar will go to protect its data and its business. “Search and Destroy: How CoStar became a $15B juggernaut” received honorable mention.
Jeans and former TRD reporter Will Parker also took the gold for best real estate series for “Is EB-5 Coming Apart at the Seams?”
In the breaking real estate news category, former associate web editor Mark Maurer’s scoop on Google buying Chelsea Market for more than $2 billion nabbed the silver award.