Editors' Choice: The Very Best Bisnow Stories Of 2025
Identifying new investment trends, dispelling industry myths, uncovering wrongdoing and exposing bad actors — these are a few of our favorite things.
Bisnow’s editors went back through the year and found the stories that really made us think or made us laugh, the ones that we know reporters poured their blood, sweat and tears into making really, really good. They don’t always make it to the top of our traffic charts, but these are some of Bisnow’s most interesting and impactful stories of 2025.
CATIE DIXON, MANAGING EDITOR
Reefer Sadness: Texas Hemp Industry Braces For 8,000-Plus Shutdowns And Their CRE 'Ripple Effects'
By Maddy McCarty
Beyond having one of my favorite Bisnow headline wordplays of the year, this story grabbed me immediately with the opening anecdote of a man who doesn’t smoke or drink but who is fighting to keep hemp legal in a state where marijuana is outlawed. Maddy found so many great characters to show the breadth and human impact of the $5.5B Texas hemp industry and backed it up by great stats — there are more retail smoke shops than there are McDonald’s in the state. It’s a fun read and an informative one about an entire industry on the brink and what it all means for property.
::::::::
'The Crisis Has Already Started': Inside The Finances Of 4,300 Rent-Stabilized NYC Apartments
By Sasha Jones
Let’s face it, CRE loves to vent about policies that make their jobs harder, and rent stabilization is enemy No. 1 in some corridors. But Sasha got apartment landlords to open their books to show that they aren’t just kvetching: The negative impact of the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 is real and deeply painful. By looking at the income, expenses and debt on almost 4,300 rent-stabilized apartments, Sasha shared the depth of the distress and how it’s trending to get much worse, to the detriment of property owners and tenants alike.
MARK F. BONNER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
SPECIAL REPORT: 20th Anniversary Of Hurricane Katrina
Part 1: 20 Years After Katrina, CRE Promises In New Orleans Remain Unfulfilled
Part 2: 20 Years After Katrina, Hotels Define New Orleans. Everything Else Barely Registers
By Matt Wasielewski, Ciara Long, Maddy McCarty and Patrick Sisson
Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina, this two-part special project asks a question that still hangs over New Orleans — and every climate-exposed market: What happens when billions in recovery dollars arrive but long-term economic revival never does? Drawing on firsthand reporting, historical data and two decades of commercial real estate outcomes, the series traces how grand poststorm promises gave way to a lopsided recovery defined by tourism wins and stalled office, job and population growth. It’s a sober, unsentimental look at how CRE choices, political drift and mistrust shaped a city’s future — and a warning for other global markets staring down the next “once-in-a-generation” disaster.
Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
Read Mark F. Bonner’s New York Times essay here.
::::::::
Mysterious Developer Is Pushing Billions In Georgia Megaprojects. An SEC Veteran Warns: Buyer Beware
By Jarred Schenke and Ethan Rothstein
This investigation is classic Bisnow accountability journalism: a hard look at whether ambitious promises, glossy renderings and billion-dollar projections are underpinned by anything real. Ethan and Jarred methodically peel back the layers of a penny-stock developer pitching splashy megaprojects across Georgia, revealing a trail of collapsed land deals, shaky SEC filings, crypto-fueled financing schemes and unanswered questions from local officials who say they’ve never heard from the company. Anchored by expert warnings from former SEC officials, the story is a reminder that in CRE, hype travels faster than permits — and investors ignore red flags at their peril.
JAY RICKEY, DIRECTOR OF NEWSLETTERS
Youth Sports' Billion-Dollar Building Boom Has Developers, Cities Playing Ball
By Patrick Sisson
For the last dozen years or so, I've worn out the Marriott Bonvoy app searching for places to stay near hockey tournaments and swim meets. But my oldest is now a sophomore in college, and my youngest is waiting to hear from schools to determine where he'll be spending the next four years. The experiences at youth sports-related developments like the ones in Patrick's article are exhausting and expensive, but also highly entertaining and cherished. I totally wish I could do it all over again.
ETHAN ROTHSTEIN, DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR
Inside The £157M Meltdown That Wiped Out Small Real Estate Investors — And The Questions Godwin Capital Still Won't Answer
By Mike Phillips
There are few acts of journalism more satisfying than tracing a large sum of money that has seemingly disappeared while being able to tell stories of humanity along the way. That is what Mike did this year in his gripping investigation into Godwin Capital. His reporting spanned three continents and uncovered a jaw-dropping scandal that must be read in its entirety to fully grasp how four men from England's Midlands spawned a global network around an investment structure that one fraud specialist said “would appear to be a Ponzi scheme.” Reading the victims' accounts and then meeting one of the salespeople in the middle of it all was a moment I won't soon forget.
::::::::
'Affordable Housing Is An Oxymoron': Why Homes For Low-Income Renters Are Far More Expensive To Build
By Jon Banister, Taylor Driscoll, Billy Wadsack and Noah Zucker
This story opens with a perfect metaphor to describe the broken process of developing affordable housing in this country: a jigsaw puzzle that charges you a fee for every piece you take out of the box. The rest of this article — executed brilliantly by reporters in D.C., Boston, Dallas and Philadelphia — goes on to prove how that system is the reason most affordable housing has been built in this country. It's also a big part of why we haven't built nearly enough of it.
As the housing crisis has emerged as one of the central political issues of our time, this is the story everyone should read to understand why it's getting worse, not better. Every time I see a subsidized housing project and think, “Why on earth does that project cost so much?” I'll think back to this piece and remember.
KAYLA CARMICHEAL, DEPUTY NEWSLETTER EDITOR
Behind Brookfield's Big Losses On U.S. Office And Its Plan To Speed Up Sales
By Emily Wishingrad and Mike Phillips
This special report dives into Brookfield’s journey of becoming the biggest owner of offices on the globe and the grim reality of what that means in a post-pandemic world.
How is Brookfield’s overall business affected by its office portfolio? How does the firm plan to move forward? What does its story tell us about the larger market?
Emily and Mike pull the curtain back on Brookfield's troubled portfolio with an interactive map tracking its biggest losses, sobering data about the asset class as a whole, and a look at what lies ahead as Brookfield ventures to shed the big bets that once looked so promising.
MIKE PHILLIPS, UK EDITOR
New Policies Further Obscure CRE Emissions, Sustainability Goals
By Maddy McCarty
Risk Spikes For Billions In Real Estate Investments As Federal Climate Funding Is Clawed Back
By Ciara Long
These articles are best read as a pair and highlight how slowly, inexorably U.S. policy is eroding the push toward sustainability that real estate had embarked upon over the past decade.
Maddy’s piece zooms out and takes a macro look at the various policies that have been rescinded by the Trump government, and she analyzes the impact on real estate as a whole.
Then Ciara zooms in on an individual policy, the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, and shows how its erasure will affect individual projects and communities. It's vital reading as the planet continues to warm.
Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
Julia Troy, Director, Studio B
'Rocking And Rolling The State': How Collin County Became An Economic Powerhouse In North Texas
By John Krukowski
While the bread and butter of Studio B, Bisnow’s sponsored content department, are the articles we write highlighting a particular company or property, we’ve spent the last two years branching out into longer-form pieces that spotlight broader topics. This piece, which focuses on economic growth in Collin County, Texas, is a perfect example of how our department has evolved over the years.
Rather than being based primarily on one interview, John spoke with members of the McKinney, Allen, Frisco and Plano economic development corporations and the McKinney National Airport director to paint a full picture of the growth in Collin County. This is an engaging, creative, in-depth piece that teaches readers about the importance of this North Texas region while keeping them entertained along the way.
::::::::
Data Centers Are Hungry For Power. Chart Industries Is Fueling The Future With Cooling And Energy Solutions
By Emily DeNardo
Before I joined Bisnow nearly seven years ago, if you asked me what a data center was, I would have said something vague about the internet and quickly tried to change the subject. Today, I can hold my own in a discussion on the benefits of liquid-to-chip cooling and the future of hybrid supercapacitors. That is thanks in no small part to the tremendous work the Studio B team has done with our many, many data center industry clients, including this piece.
While John’s piece showcases how Studio B’s product offerings have evolved, Emily’s article is a great example of the classic work that we do so well. It takes a complex topic — cryogenic technology solutions — and expertly breaks down the role it can play in the future of data centers while emphasizing the unique products our client is bringing to the market.
CRAIG IDLEBROOK, EAST COAST EDITOR
Hyundai Raid Sparks Fears Of Foreign Retreat From U.S. Factory Boom
By Jarred Schenke
'Shocking': College Towns Feel The Pain Of Fewer International Students
By Taylor Driscoll
Commercial real estate reporters often are reminded to include people in their photos as a reminder of who the buildings serve. But what happens when these people unexpectedly disappear?
Immigration policy impacts CRE investment. Who we let into the country has ramifications for the retail, multifamily and industrial sectors.
Here are two stories that examine the ripple effects of strict immigration policies on CRE. In the first, a sudden raid leaves a Hyundai plant under construction without skilled workers to complete it and industrial investors questioning whether they can commit to projects that may face similar disruptions. In the second, college town business leaders and landlords grapple with the fact that international students failed to materialize for the fall semester, and they scramble to fill the void.
These two stories remind me of the inescapably human elements of the CRE industry and how CRE developers must factor uncertainty into their business plans.
Read Jarred’s story here and Taylor's story here.
JON BANISTER, EAST COAST EDITOR
The Quiet Retreat: How White House Pressure Is Rewriting CRE's DEI Playbook
By Ryan Wangman, Matt Wasielewski and Emily Wishingrad
Bisnow has been tracking the racial and gender diversity of the largest CRE firms since 2020, working to hold companies accountable to the promises many made in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests that summer. This year, the industry stopped talking about diversity, as the new Trump administration made DEI one of its top targets, but Bisnow decided we wouldn’t stop covering the issue.
In this piece, a trio of reporters investigated the corporate messaging around DEI and found more than two dozen of the largest CRE companies had changed their messaging around diversity or entirely removed mentions of it from their website. This piece uses before-and-after visualizations to show those public-facing changes, and it quotes a series of experts discussing why companies are taking this tactic — and why it may be shortsighted.
::::::::
Data Center Real Estate Leaders Dismiss Growing AI Bubble Warnings
By Dan Rabb
Dan has been covering the data center beat for Bisnow for several years now, so when the industry became one of the hottest topics in the business news world this year, his expertise and contacts in the sector allowed Bisnow to drive the story forward on a variety of fronts. This piece tackled the growing narrative that artificial intelligence spending has become a bubble that could wreak havoc on the economy. The story places Big Tech’s unprecedented AI infrastructure spending in the context of the data center real estate market, explaining where some cracks are beginning to show, but ultimately why data center leaders say the demand boom they are seeing is real and they aren’t worried about a bubble popping — at least not yet.
MOLLY ARMBRISTER, WEST COAST EDITOR
'Pure Chaos': Inside The CRE Fallout From DOGE's Slash-And-Burn Campaign
By Bianca Barragán
The Department of Government Efficiency disbanded eight months ahead of schedule, but its actions dominated headlines in early 2025 as billionaire Elon Musk slashed thousands of jobs in his quest to cut billions from the federal budget. These actions were closely watched by commercial real estate, especially brokers who specialize in government-leased space. As decisions vacillated, brokers tried to keep up, but many were left confused or deserted without communication. Bianca, with an assist from reporters Jarred Schenke and Emily Wishingrad, captured the feeling of “pure chaos” in the CRE community in the early days of DOGE.
::::::::
Banks Jump Back Into CRE Lending, Even As Debt Risks Linger
By Matt Wasielewski
Despite a year in which “uncertainty” was the biggest buzzword, banks made a cautious return to commercial real estate as 2025 progressed. Loan origination to CRE has returned to near prepandemic levels, which is welcome news and a signal of renewed confidence among these lending institutions. But tension remains, with lingering delinquency challenges and extend-and-pretend strategies pushing maturities forward. Matt gives readers crucial insight into how the tides of bank lending are changing while offering a warning of choppiness heading into the new year and explaining the impact of it all.
John Krukowski, Studio B Deputy Editor
Working Together Better: Boston-Area Coworking Network Fosters Productivity And Innovation
By Marynia Kruk
Just as coworking space provider Workbar found a clever way to differentiate itself from its competition, Marynia’s company profile stands out from much other sponsored content about flexible workspace providers.
Marynia walks readers through Workbar’s origin, which its CEO suggested could only happen in a place like Boston that values innovation, and its founding by entrepreneurs who wanted to create a collaborative and productive work environment.
Beginning with a clever lead, she highlights the company’s novel idea of dividing the workspace into “neighborhoods” suited for different types of work: The “Study” for focused work, the “Cafe” for a livelier, interactive environment, and so on.
“We’ve figured out how to enable people from different industries and different generations to work together productively in open space,” Workbar’s CEO told her.
Marynia, in turn, figured out how to present this concept in an engaging manner.
NANCY SHEPPARD, CENTRAL EDITOR
Inside Sonder's Implosion: Master Leases, Growth At All Costs And A Scramble For Cash
By Maddy McCarty
What I loved about this story was how Maddy went beyond explaining what happened, but put a human face on it. By weaving in the voices and experiences of the people affected by Sonder’s unraveling, she humanized what was a very complex business failure. That took this story to a more personal level, and as a reader, I felt very connected to the subject and am left wondering what the future may hold.
::::::::
Illinois Program To Boost Emerging Developers Gains Steam As State Tackles Affordable Housing Shortage
By Ryan Wangman
This story stood out to me for several reasons. Ryan did an excellent job highlighting a forward-thinking program that invests in Illinois’ emerging developers while also addressing the affordable housing crisis. He brought that impact to life through the eyes of two of the program’s emerging developers, who are helping to shape the future of affordable housing. Ryan really did a fine job highlighting human connection through this extraordinary solutions-oriented program.
::::::::
DFW Is The 'Economic Dynamo Of The Country,' But Has It Entered Its Gateway Market Era?
By Billy Wadsack
Billy created a conversation starter. He did an excellent job explaining why DFW has quickly risen the ranks and should be taken very seriously through multiple angles: capital, business migration and global perception. It’s a thoughtful, well-researched piece that makes the case for why DFW shouldn’t just be seen as a domestic success story but as a true global staying power.
TIM CARROLL, CHIEF COPY EDITOR
Almost Every Window Ends Up In A Landfill. One Woman Is Leading The Charge To Recycle Them
By Ciara Long
It isn't so common a story comes along on an unexpected topic, one you probably never considered. The local trash collector probably refuses to take Styrofoam, but it certainly accepts glass jars. So a reader could be forgiven for assuming glass from building windows was among the easily recycled materials in the redevelopment process. Not so, Ciara found, but some are working to right that. This story type is among the most important we publish: information a developer could immediately use, especially to make the redevelopment and renovation processes more environmentally friendly.
