Real estate is a manifestation of money and power. For the reporters who write about it, it can be a fascinating topic, with diehard dealmakers and incredible stakes.
It can also, like any job, be a whole lot of work. This year here at The Real Deal, it was thousands of stories’ worth of work — more than 7,500, in fact. And amid a fast-changing market, TRD’s reporters and editors worked tirelessly to keep up with the latest trends and bring you, our readers, the next big scoop or scandal.
So as the year winds down, it’s important to reflect on the stories that shook the industry, shed light on secrets or even just made us laugh.
Below are a few of our staff’s favorites. Enjoy.
Inside the family feud of the multibillion-dollar Sol Goldman empire, by Rich Bockmann
with (from left):
Steven Gurney Goldman,
Amy Goldman Fowler,
Lillian Goldman, Louisa Little,
Jane Goldman,
and Allan Goldman (Illustration by Laura Salafia)
Senior Reporter Rich Bockmann dug into a dispute among the members of the Goldman family in this tale, illuminating a crazy and yet incredibly commonplace conflict that’s taken to new heights by the family’s enormous real estate holdings. TRD Features Editor Cara Eisenpress called it “the leanest yet longest feature of the year” — and at just over 5,000 words, it does hold the distinction of being the lengthiest story we published in the last several years. Eisenpress noted that, though Bockmann had a “treasure trove” of information via lawsuits, it was “his background in the family and the beat and the way he ordered the narrative that brought the drama and the heirs to life.”
A closer look at the kingpins of Kings Point, by Elizabeth Cryan
Cryan’s task in this story — to get inside a tight-knit community and find out what makes it work — was not an easy one to accomplish. But as Senior Editor Rachel Stone put it, “it also came across as effortless.” Though Cryan put in hours of sourcing, research, and a field trip to Long Island to pull together the story’s color, it paid off, creating a resource for dealmakers and a unique window into a community. “Also,” Stone noted, “very well written and engaging to the end. That’s how it’s done!”
How Maria Mendelsohn rode her way to the top of Wellington real estate, by Kate Hinsche
“What I loved about this piece,” said South Florida reporter Lidia Dinkova, “is that it is a profile of both a person, Maria Mendelsohn, and a place, Wellington, the winter equestrian capital of the world.” To get the inside scoop, Hinsche worked sources, walked the grassy lawns of Wellington, and landed an interview with Mendelsohn herself — one of the class of press-shy Palm Beach-area brokers who are rarely keen to talk shop with a journalist. Dinkova noted how Hinsche moves past the industry cliches of “dealmakers” and “playgrounds of the rich,” painting Mendelsohn with unique descriptors and finding the tension in the story.
One favorite line by Hinsche: “She speaks the two languages you need to be fluent in here in Wellington: that of the riders, and that of their hedge-funder fathers and husbands.
Lawsuits accuse top broker Oren Alexander, brother Alon of rape, by Katherine Kallergis and Sheridan Wall
Bockmann spotlighted this story about the allegations of sexual assault against top broker Oren and twin brother Alon Alexander — the very first one, after which Oren and older brother Tal fell from real estate’s highest heights to, presently, federal custody — for “expos[ing] the brothers’ alleged crimes to the light of day.”
Kallergis, Wall, and their Senior Residential Editor Ellen Cranley have followed the story “from every angle,” Bockmann said, “but it was that first scoop that broke everything open. Their reporting made it easier for other women to come forward, and may very well have saved countless others from becoming victims. It’s some of the most important journalism I’ve ever seen.”
Map shows Shaya Prager’s real estate deals collapsing across US, by Jessica Hardin
Another favorite of Stone’s, she noted that although this “was not an easy story to track down,” Hardin dedicated “a lot of time” learning the complex financial structures that Prager was using in order to piece the story together. The map “pulled it together so well,” Stone said, but also noted that “the reporting was on point, and the story is well-written and intriguing.”
Radical Development, by Keith Larsen
Cryan loved how this story provided “a peek into the infighting inside the ivory towers” of Columbia University’s Master of Science in Real Estate Development. Though academia is usually outside of TRD’s purview, here Larsen mined the tension at a popular program that’s become a feeder for top firms — but faces existential questions about its future and its purpose. Cryan said the story reflected “a deep knowledge of the industry and the limited but varied paths to success.”
Brokers Behaving Badly: How regulators fail to prevent resi brokers’ bad behavior, by Katherine Kallergis, and State regulators slow to act when Illinois brokers behave badly, by Kelli Duncan, and How broker misdeeds get swept under the rug in New York, by Sheridan Wall
Multiple team members called out stories from this investigative series that was spearheaded by Kallergis, and tracked the underregulation of the brokerage industry across multiple states. Chicago Bureau Chief Sam Lounsberry noted that Duncan’s Chicago piece was “crucial” in exposing the real consequences of underregulation, and shedding light on an “incredibly shadowy portion of the real estate market.” Similarly, Senior Reporter and Politics Editor Kathryn Brenzel noted that Kallergis’ piece “does an excellent job underscoring the lax enforcement around residential brokerage in South Florida, and how this system benefits rule-bending brokers, while leaving fellow brokers and consumers in the dark.”
How high-flying, risk-loving real estate executives deal with disaster, by Elizabeth Cryan
“This feature story delved into an area that is so sensitive in real estate circles that it’s virtually never discussed: failure, and the impact it has on mental health,” said Senior Managing Editor Erik Engquist. “Several real estate figures opened up about their own experiences, which clearly included thoughts of suicide — a fate that has sadly befallen a number of developers in recent years. The story resonated with our readers and might have even moved some to reach out for help.”
Reporter Hinsche shouted out the story as well, noting that though it departs from the “TRD story blueprint,” it also created “the kind of snapshot of the real estate mind we should be trying to capture with every story.”
Floating rates & flames: Why Chicago landlord CedarSt is burning cash, by Emma Whalen
Lounsberry called out a TRD trademark on this story: “The art is fantastic!” he said. Of course, the story also has its bonafides: “It’s super rare to get an interview with a landlord in this position of not being able to cover debt costs without going into pocket. It was a great get and illustrative of the moment in CRE as floating rate debts skyrocketed in costs for borrowers amid the Federal Reserve’s campaign against inflation,” Lounsberry explained.
Boruch Drillman faces eviction for chain smoking, by Keith Larsen
“This story was probably the only story that made me laugh out loud reading it,” said reporter Jacob Indursky. “Legal documents can lend themselves to pulling out evocative narratives, but they also have a lot of ridiculous pieces in them, and this story was able to find some of those and make a fun story out of it. Long live “Chimney Stacks” (or at least, as long as his cig-pounding lifestyle will allow).”
Roscoe Village sellers first to try removing buyer agent commission, by Kelli Duncan
The National Association of Realtors’ settlement was one of 2023’s biggest stories, but it was this year that the first major ripple effects were felt. Lounsberry highlighted this story, which “provided a real-world example of how practices around residential commissions were changing in real time, and the resistance to that change.”
Inside Jay Shidler’s ground lease kingdom, by Emma Whalen
Here, Lounsberry says Whalen beautifully details an under-reported-on player in a uniquely tight spot. “The writing comparing the subject to a Hawaiian king is apt,” he noted, “and the reporting also touches on how there may be financial drawbacks to his deals for the universities that became benefactors of his unique approach to CRE.”
Thanks for reading, folks. We’re looking forward to many new favorites in the new year.