Last year, The Real Deal crushed it at the NAREE Journalism awards, taking home 14 separate honors, a record for the publication. This year, “the bible of the real estate news industry” — as one judge put it — upped the ante with 15 awards.
The New York City-based media company won Gold in the Best Commercial Trade Magazine category for the fourth consecutive year, further cementing its status as the premier news authority on the commercial real estate sector.
Steven Roth and 220 Central Park South, which has effectively created its own tier of the luxury market.
TRD’s award-winning November 2020 issue’s cover story chronicled the 15-year odyssey of Vornado’s 220 Central Park South — the world’s most profitable condo. In the words of the judge, “The piece delivers.” The issue also included Katherine Kallergis’ “A challenge of biblical proportions: developers brace for disaster,” which won Silver for Best Commercial Real Estate Trade Magazine Story for its unflinching account of the impacts of climate change on oceanfront properties and those invested in them — not only in the U.S., but globally.
TRD also received Gold in the Best Residential Trade Magazine category for its December 2020 issue, the last in perhaps the most tumultuous year in real estate history — and real estate journalism. Through an array of storytelling forms, TRD’s “formidable journalists” (to quote the judge) followed the people and the money that made the market.
Kurt Rappaport (Photo by Jeff Newton)
Among these was “The life and times of Kurt Rappaport, California’s alpha agent,” by Matthew Blake. The profile, which won the Gold for Best Residential Trade Magazine Story, is a colorful look at what makes the rockstar agent run, teeming with anecdotes and self-referential gems like, “If you’ve been skimming this article to read Rappaport shit-talk rivals, here’s the best you’re going to get… ‘We’re just different. I don’t like speaking poorly about anyone.’”
Ryan Serhant
TRD swept the category, taking Silver for Erin Hudson’s story on hand model turned celebrity real estate agent Ryan Serhant. With research by Matthew Elo, “When the stars no longer align” is a nuanced look at how much his former agency depended on the star power of its golden boy — and what happened when he fled the nest.
Bronze went to the question on everyone’s lips last October: “Can iBuying go the distance?” E.B. Solomont delivered unparalleled reporting on what was meant to be the next big thing in real estate. For Zillow, the answer wound up being a resounding, “I guess not.” In her prophetic account of the iBuying enterprise, Solomont gave early insight into why, like they say in Silicon Valley, it didn’t scale.
Clockwise from top: Gary Barnett, Aby Rosen, Michael Stern, Jeff Blau, Ziel Feldman and Robert Gladstone (Illustration by Nazario Graziano)
The honorable mention in the category went to Sylvia Varnham O’Regan’s “Contending with Manhattan’s Condo Crunch.” Supported by research from Christian Bautista, Yoryi DeLaRosa and Mary Diduch, the story looks at what became of lofty luxury condo projects during an uncertain time for the market.
The Real Deal also cleaned up in the digital sphere, receiving Silver for Best Website for the second year in a row. Second only to the Wall Street Journal, TRD’s website received praise from the judges for its focus on local markets while also serving up a steady flow of trending national content. Kathryn Brenzel received the Bronze award for Best Newsletter by an Individual Journalist. The Daily Dirt is a subscriber-only daily newsletter serving as a digest of all the hottest topics in New York real estate and other areas of metro interest.
Below are the other honorable mentions that The Real Deal received
- Best Commercial Real Estate Trade Magazine Story: “The Litmus Test,” by E.B. Solomont
- Best Investigative Report or Series: “Behind the Biggest Real Estate Crowdfunding Implosion,” by Sylvia Varnham O’Regan and Mary Diduch
- Best Online Residential Mortgage of Financial Real Estate Story: “Incidents at Nooklyn and Core Outrage Black Agents, Staff,” by Erin Hudson and Sylvia Varnham O’Regan
- Best Collection of Work by an Individual Covering Commercial Real Estate: C.J. Hughes, including, “Real estate activity in suburbs catches second wind in Covid era.”
To read all of these award-winning pieces of journalism and more, subscribe to The Real Deal today.