CoStar News was recognized in the nation's largest real estate journalism awards contest for exemplary economic reporting and swept the category for best online news stories.
The awards from the National Association of Real Estate Editors were announced at the organization's annual conference in Atlanta. The winners for work published in 2021 were selected by an outside panel of judges in a competition that included prominent national news organizations such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News and the Washington Post.
CoStar staff writer Andria Cheng won a gold medal for her online real estate story on the transformation of the New York City neighborhood terrorists struck two decades ago: “How Lower Manhattan, 20 Years After the Sept. 11 Attacks, Became a 24/7 Neighborhood.”
In explaining their awards, judges wrote "Cheng tells a powerful story of rebirth and redemption, with a real estate angle, 20 years after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Deep reporting netted important details, such as a top broker’s 'special sauce' marketing pitch: Lower Manhattan offers a less-than-15-minute commute from places where young people live, such as Brooklyn. New tenants like Spotify and Conde Nast are also where young people want to work. The piece is well-written and includes a helpful schematic that shows the new post-9/11 downtown landscape."
In the category for best economic analysis, Cara Smith-Tenta won the silver medal for her story outlining the effects of global supply chain disruptions on property development: “Apartment Industry’s Supply-Chain Woes Worsen, With Delays Hitting Nationally.”
The judges said "Smith-Tenta’s engaging angle — following an order of apartment cabinets for a multi-family rehab — draw the reader into her story. Clear writing, strong data and interesting anecdotes keep them there. From waiting for metal roof decks and window frames to the big jump in trans-Pacific shipping costs ($25,000 compared with $4,000 'normally'), Smith-Tenta helps the reader understand what housing developers are up against. She also connects the dots to rising rent costs."
Randyl Drummer won the silver medal in the best online real estate category for “Here’s How the Pandemic Is Changing ‘Act of God’ Clauses in Real Estate Contracts,” a story that analyzed the changes in leasing arrangements as the industry adjusted to the unpredictability brought about by the coronavirus.
"In this thoroughly reported story, Drummer writes about commercial tenants’ mad scramble to add health crises to the list of catastrophic events included in their leases’ 'Act of God' clauses," the judges said. "He uses data judiciously to illustrate the story and talks to a wide variety of attorneys, for both landlords and tenants. It’s a story with lots of unknowns and Drummer did his readers a service by exploring them all, including the latest rulings from judges."
Marissa Luck won the bronze medal for “Policies to Postpone Evictions During the Pandemic Sound Simple. They’re Not.” The story showed how, as the pandemic led to increasing eviction cases across the United States, differences in local laws disrupted lives. Luck spent a day in eviction court in Houston, where there are no local or state eviction moratoriums and only 4% of tenants had legal representation, documenting easily misunderstood policies and procedures, along with the emotional suffering resulting from the confusion.
Smith-Tenta won honorable mention for “Evanston’s Historic Reparations Plan Aims to Forge New Path Amid Concerns,” a story that explored the issue of reparations for racial discrimination in housing. Smith-Tenta spotlighted the issue through the difficulties faced by officials in Evanston, Illinois, in designing a reparations program that could gain the support of those it was designed to help. She analyzed the complexities of addressing race in America by explaining why some Black residents who qualify aren’t interested in taking part in a program that would award money to descendants of those who were denied housing because of their race.
CoStar News is a primary source of news, analysis and features for commercial real estate professionals. It is a division of CoStar Group, the largest provider of commercial property information serving hundreds of thousands of subscribing brokers, investors, lenders, owners, attorneys and appraisers around the world.