Editors Choice: The Very Best Bisnow Stories Of 2023
The weather has cooled. The stockings are hung and menorahs are lit. Meetings are on hiatus, and deal flow has finally tapered. After a whirlwind fourth quarter, we can all take a breath and slow down a bit — at least until the family descends for the holidays.
At Bisnow, that pause has given us the chance to ask ourselves, “Wait, what did we do all year?” Quite a lot, turns out. Our editors dug through the thousands of articles we wrote this year to pull out what we think are the very best, from the investigations and thorough analysis to the quirky and fun. We hope you'll enjoy this roundup of Bisnow's greatest hits of the year, and we look forward to hitting it just as hard again in 2024!
— Catie Dixon, Bisnow Managing Editor
::::::::
MOLLY ARMBRISTER, WEST COAST EDITOR
The Construction Industry Needs Undocumented Workers. So Why Is Nothing Being Done To Help Them?
By Patrick Sisson, National Reporter
The shortage of labor in the construction industry has made headlines in the commercial real estate industry for years, but there’s always an unspoken element when anyone tries to talk about this workforce. The undocumented laborers that make up a sizable portion of the construction workforce in the U.S. are often the difference between projects that are finished and those that aren’t. Bringing more undocumented workers into the ranks would help ease the labor shortage that has crippled many projects across the country. Yet these same people are often subject to human rights violations, safety hazards and unequal pay, making it difficult for them to continue in this line of work. Patrick Sisson spent months peeling back just one layer of this complex topic for a special report that details what these workers endure and why they could make such a difference to the industry.
::::::::
JON BANISTER, DEPUTY EAST COAST EDITOR
'It’s Like Threading A Needle': Boston Developers Struggle To Fill Affordable Units As Wu Pushes For More
By Taylor Driscoll, Boston Reporter
Boston has been struggling with an affordable housing shortage, but developers often say they have a difficult time filling their income-restricted units with qualified tenants. Bisnow decided to investigate. By speaking to tenants and landlords, scouring through city data and finding an unreported memo from one of the city’s affordable housing consultants, Taylor Driscoll reported that the city does, in fact, have hundreds of vacant affordable units. These units can remain empty for as long as a year due to administrative delays in the application process even as tenants sit on a waiting list. This was especially relevant early this year, as the city was debating Mayor Michelle Wu’s proposal to increase the percentage of units in new buildings that developers must set aside as affordable.
::::::::
ChatGPT Is Just The Start: AI Is Rewriting The Data Center Real Estate Map
By Dan Rabb, Data Centers Reporter
It’s hard to look back on 2023 news without including a piece about ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence interface that took the world by storm at the start of this year and has spurred a wave of new applications across the business world. The commercial real estate sector most immediately impacted was data centers, the sprawling facilities of servers that house the computing power necessary for AI to run. Big Tech firms this year launched an arms race to rapidly scale up their AI tools, and this has not only led to booming demand for data centers, but it has changed the types of locations that are being targeted for these facilities, two trends that Dan Rabb’s first ChatGPT story from January correctly predicted.
::::::::
MARK BONNER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Bisnow's 2023 DEI Data Series
By Emily Wishingrad, Matt Wasielewski, Olivia Lueckemeyer, Bianca Barragán, Miriam Hall, Ethan Rothstein and Katharine Carlon
Real estate was moved by politics in 2020. George Floyd had just been murdered, and a powerful Black Lives Matter movement gripped the collective consciousness of the world — a force that reached all the way to the pinnacles of corporate America. The challenge was clear: What actions will you take? For commercial real estate, a traditionally white, male-dominated industry, the time had come to finally evolve its ranks. To its credit, the industry changed. As is evident in the fourth annual installment of Bisnow’s DEI Data Series, the industry may still be mostly white and male, but its highest ranks have never been so full of women and people of color. Of course, political winds shift, and CRE is once again being tested.
In June the Supreme Court voted to strike down the use of affirmative action in college admissions. This decision has fanned a national movement to tear down corporate DEI programs. The verdict has emboldened corporate leaders who see DEI programs as peripheral, and even antithetical, to the bottom line. The irony is that diversity is a proven moneymaker. Ethnically diverse companies financially outperform their less diverse competitors by 35%. Still, the political debate America is having on these lines might be enough to test CRE’s resolve, especially as it contends with another foe — survival.
::::::::
KATHARINE CARLON, CENTRAL U.S. EDITOR
'You're Asking Us To Sacrifice Ourselves': A Dallas Community Fights To Overcome A Toxic Legacy
'Fighting Can't Hurt': Embattled Joppa Demands City Push Harder Against Heavy Polluters
By Olivia Lueckemeyer, Dallas-Fort Worth Reporter
The common term for geographic areas permanently impaired by environmental damage and economic disinvestment, “sacrifice zones,” is chilling. When Olivia Lueckemeyer began digging into Dallas-Fort Worth’s long history of allowing heavy polluters to exist side by side with poor neighborhoods of color, it became clear the term is anything but hyperbolic. Residents living in the literal shadow of heavy industry are paying an agonizing toll in terms of health and life span and are increasingly fighting back against antiquated and racist zoning policies.
Weaving together personal stories, data and a timeline of local governments’ painfully slow progress to right past wrongs, Lueckemeyer’s series illustrates just why, in the words of one activist, “the level of work to get to a place where your neighborhood is safe and healthy is a very uphill climb.”
::::::::
How Renters Are Using TikTok, X To Defraud Landlords At Luxury Apartments
By Jarred Schenke, Atlanta Reporter
Starting with the germ of an idea from an earnings call, Jarred Schenke got to work on an insightful story on the growing problem of renter fraud and how social media is exacerbating the issue as renters collaborate on schemes to mislead landlords. The story was weeks in the making, and it shows, featuring nine well-placed and informed sources with outreach to many more, deep research and specific, vivid examples of how fraudsters are operating and why it’s so difficult for law enforcement to stop them. In Atlanta, a hotbed of fraudulent activity, real estate players say just one arrest could lessen the practice. For now, though, according to Camden CEO Ric Campo, “Fraudsters are so emboldened because nobody does anything to them.”
::::::::
KAYLA CARMICHEAL, DEPUTY NEWSLETTER EDITOR
Real Estate Giants Roll The Dice On Growth In Vegas. Is There Still Room To Run In The Desert?
By Mike Phillips, UK Editor
What happened when investors placed their bet on Las Vegas' casino market in the middle of a pandemic? Did testing their luck put the odds in their favor? Mike Phillips gives a rich exploration into the realities of the tourism market from 2021 to now and the ways the sector might be seeing a return to form.
::::::::
The Fraying Of The Texas Miracle: How The State's Affordability Edge Is Coming Undone
By Maddy McCarty and Olivia Lueckemeyer
Growing up, I heard sentiments from my family such as, “If you move to Texas, you can get the best bang for buck when it comes to housing.” And like many others, I always believed it to be true. Until it wasn't. Bisnow's Texas team did a fantastic job of analyzing the factors that led to the rise and fall of the “Texas Miracle” in this incredible multipart deep dive. When did Texas' winning streak come to an end? How are residents and local governments reacting to the crippling housing crisis, and who, if anyone, is at fault for the condition of the Lone Star State's housing as it currently stands? You'll walk away with a deeper understanding of the dire state of the nationwide affordable housing crisis told from the view of the world's ninth-largest economy.
::::::::
TIM CARROLL, CHIEF COPY EDITOR
Up A Creek With A Paddle: Pickleball Concepts Gobbling Up Big-Box Stores Left Vacant By Retailers
By Emily Wishingrad, D.C. Reporter
Every now and then, a story captures a moment in time perfectly. Perhaps like ax-throwing roughly five years before it, this piece on the rise of pickleball as a retail landlord's dream, backfilling space vacated by the big-box retailers of the world, is as quintessentially 2023 as any other story Bisnow produced this year. Maybe the trend continues indefinitely, but for now, I'm comfortable calling 2023 the year of the pickleball retailer.
::::::::
‘You Sure You Want To Do This?’: Rookie Office Brokers Pursue CRE Careers Despite Downturn
By Patrick Sisson, National Reporter
When looking for opinions on what the industry is like, we often go to the most senior executives. This story does quite the opposite, examining what new entrants are experiencing amid a difficult economic environment. Patrick Sisson did a great job finding young brokers specializing in the much-maligned office sector and letting them tell their own experiences, good and bad.
::::::::
CATIE DIXON, MANAGING EDITOR
WeWork Is Bankrupt. Where Do We Go From Here?
By Mike Phillips, Matt Wasielewski, Miriam Hall and Dees Stribling
When the signs started to stack up that a WeWork bankruptcy was imminent, Bisnow got to work preparing. When it finally happened on Nov. 6, we were live within two hours with this deep analysis that not only looked at how WeWork landed here but also covered everything from what the restructuring process could look like for landlords to whether WeWork was likely to be sold. It’s a comprehensive story, and I'm proud of how quickly and well the team executed it.
::::::::
Property Sharks And Minnows Swim Side By Side At Rollicking Harris County Foreclosure Auction
By Maddy McCarty, Houston Reporter
This story is just a lot of fun. As cases of properties being foreclosed on and sold at auction rose this year, Maddy McCarty realized she didn’t know how these auctions actually work or who typically frequents them, so she went down to one herself. The answer is more interesting than I would have expected, with people in costume, deals being worked behind closed doors and a surprising lack of formal procedure. It’s a fascinating little feature on a part of the industry that will likely get even more use next year.
::::::::
MIKE PHILLIPS, UK EDITOR
Here’s Why Simon Property Is Defying Critics With New Billion-Dollar Bet On Retailer
By Mark Faithfull, Dublin/London Reporter
When Simon Property started buying stakes in struggling retailers in 2016, most dismissed it as a desperate attempt to stop its malls from emptying out further. Seven years on, its bets are getting bigger and bolder. Retail expert Mark Faithfull takes a deep dive into the often opaque financials of a strategy that remains unique in the real estate world.
::::::::
After 3 Major Failures, Does UK Modular Housebuilding Have A Future?
By David Thame, UK Reporter
Modular housing has been touted as a saviour of the construction industry for decades, but the failure of three of the UK’s largest modular companies in quick succession showed just how far away the sector is from achieving its potential. David Thame’s forensic examination laid bare the challenges facing modular as well as some potential solutions.
::::::::
JAY RICKEY, DIRECTOR OF NEWSLETTERS
Trump Attorney Accuses Appraiser Of Lying After He Denied Working On Valuations
By Dees Stribling, National Reporter
Bisnow has written about the appraisals on Trump Organization properties at the heart of fraud allegations (see: Trump Investigation Brings More Scrutiny To Secretive Way Commercial Properties Are Valued). We even spent some time digging through CMBS filings in the SEC to understand how Trump came to value his assets. But the story got weird in court when the appraiser Trump used, Doug Larson, flat-out denied working on Trump’s valuations. The assertion in court was Trump valued his assets using a generic email Larson sent to clients. Trump’s lawyers accused Larson of lying. And there’s still no clarity on how Trump’s 40 Wall St. was valued at $527M in 2012 with occupancy below 59% and NOI under $8.9M, which implies a 2% cap rate.
::::::::
How AvalonBay Dodged The RealPage Antitrust Lawsuit
By Katharine Carlon, Central U.S. Editor
Large REITs and multifamily heavy hitters are among the defendants in a class-action lawsuit alleging property owners used software by RealPage to inflate apartment rents across the U.S. Bisnow noticed in August that one REIT, AvalonBay, had distinguished itself from the other defendants in Q2 earnings calls and 10-Qs by saying it had been released from all the cases. Katharine Carlon started looking into this and discovered AvalonBay “insisted” on ironclad contractual language barring other RealPage clients from using AvalonBay data. The Virginia-based REIT was prescient in looking to sidestep worries the software “could lead to information sharing and price setting that posed grave antitrust concerns.”
::::::::
ETHAN ROTHSTEIN, DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR
Nightingale Misappropriated Millions From Crowdfunding Investors, Fiduciary Says
By Jarred Schenke
Few stories captured the attention of the commercial real estate world this year quite like the saga of Nightingale Properties and CrowdStreet, and this is the piece that blew it wide open. Jarred Schenke was the first to report that the deal to acquire the Atlanta Financial Center in Buckhead at $54M, the largest campaign in CrowdStreet's history when it was raised in 2022, had fallen apart, and nearly all of the money was missing. He obtained correspondence between CrowdStreet and the bilked investors, including a recording where an independent fiduciary appointed to take over the deal laid bare the accusation that Nightingale CEO Elie Schwartz committed fraud.
The size and blatant nature of the misappropriation was stunning, and more jaw-dropping details would emerge in the following months, including that Schwartz put $12M of the money he took into stocks and stock options in First Republic Bank shortly before it failed. Schwartz's property empire was unraveling as the story unfolded. He lost large holdings to foreclosure and receivership in Brooklyn and Philadelphia and faced lawsuits for late debt payments on multiple Manhattan buildings. Schwartz hasn't spoken publicly since the scandal broke, but he has all but admitted his wrongdoing. He agreed in October to pay back his investors in installments over the next three years, selling his personal residences, art and jewelry to do so.
::::::::
SPECIAL REPORT: Real Estate’s Efforts To Cut Carbon Emissions ‘May As Well Be Doing Nothing’
By Mike Phillips, Ciara Long and Jacob Wallace
Outside of fossil fuel producers, there is perhaps no industry under more pressure worldwide to reduce its emissions than commercial real estate. In this groundbreaking, three-part investigative series, Mike Phillips, Ciara Long and Jacob Wallace analyze the decarbonization policies of the world's 75 largest property investors, and what they found was stark. Almost half didn't have a target to reduce their emissions at all. Even more critically, nearly all of the companies aren't tracking the emissions created by their tenants or during construction, which by some measures account for 90% of the industry's carbon footprint. The failure to account for these types of emissions, referred to as Scope 3 emissions, has grave implications for the planet as nations around the world look to slow the impact of climate change.
::::::::
JULIA TROY, STUDIO B EDITOR
Revitalizing Philadelphia Infrastructure Is A Labor Of Brotherly Love
By Elizabeth Reyn, Studio B Writer
Over at Studio B, Bisnow’s sponsored content department, we have a team of five exceptional writers who cover everything from proptech and new developments to in-depth, expert opinions on the state of the economy. It’s hard to choose one article in particular that highlights the work we do, but I chose this one from Elizabeth Reyn because I think it is an excellent example of how, when done right, sponsored content can be engaging, newsworthy and promotional all at the same time. This is the story of how contractor Buckley & Co. sprung into action following the devastating collapse of a section of Interstate 95 in Northeast Philadelphia and put together a team that was able to get it up and running in just 12 days. It shines a light on the monumental role contractors play in society and will hopefully inspire more people to join the trade, which is one of the goals of our client who commissioned the article, The Carpenter Contractor Trust. At Studio B, it is our mission to create custom content that is not just an advertisement, but exciting and educational for our readers. This article is a great example of that.
