Top stories you have to read from 2023

The best national real estate stories from The Real Deal.     [The Real Deal's biggest stories in 2023]( It's been a wild ride for real estate in 2023, and that means a lot of interesting stories. But, out of the more than 9,800 stories that TRD published this year, these ten were the most popular with readers. They hit on a few familiar topics. Most of all: distress, especially for multifamily investors and syndicators. Of all of these syndicators, none captured readers' attention as much as Tides Equities. But there were others who had their fair share of time in the spotlight, like GVA Real Estate, Rise 48, ZMR Capital and many more. The problem struck investors all across the country, but it hit especially hard in Texas, where investors had poured in money thanks to the lightning-fast rent growth the state was experiencing in years past. It wasn't just little-known syndicators struggling with multifamily debt, though. Investment behemoth Blackstone ran into its own trouble. Other top stories include Freddie Mac's investigation into one of the country’s largest commercial mortgage brokerages, a shocking fiasco at crowdfunding platform CrowdStreet, and the many misadventures of CA Ventures and its CEO Tom Scott.     [I'm an image]( [Multifamily player Tides Equities faces $6.5B dilemma in the Sun Belt]( Tides Equities amassed a massive multifamily portfolio in an era of low interest rates and a booming rental market. Now, rent growth has slowed, and debt costs have skyrocketed. Can Tides answer the $6.5 billion question? [I'm an image]( [Tides Equities flew too close to the sun. It wasn’t alone]( Tides isn’t the only syndicator that found itself in trouble last year. A number of small-time investors, lured by the cheap money of yesteryear, employed the same value-add strategy. Syndicators pooled money from well-heeled yet largely unsophisticated investors, promising outsized returns on multifamily deals. But the music has stopped, insiders say. [I'm an image]( [Cash flow from Blackstone portfolio no longer covers debt payments: Moody’s]( Two months after a $271 million Blackstone loan secured by 11 Manhattan multifamily buildings went to special servicing, Moody’s downgraded the CMBS debt, citing cash flow that wouldn’t cover the debt service. [I'm an image]( [When the Tides go out]( MF1 aspired to be multifamily syndicators' favorite lender. It achieved that, but what was the cost? Across MF1’s almost $11 billion amortizing loan book, almost half of the deals are either watchlisted or delinquent [I'm an image]( [Meridian Capital under investigation by Freddie Mac]( The powerful multifamily lending agency Freddie Mac kicked off an investigation into Ralph Herzka’s Meridian Capital Group over a deal the brokerage did for the company. [I'm an image]( [Syndicators are sinking. Who’ll make it out alive?]( Insiders expect the distress hitting select syndicators to spread. Scores of operators fueled by cheap, floating-rate debt went on buying sprees from late 2020 until March 2022, when the Federal Reserve began pushing borrowing costs up to tame inflation. Many overpaid, failed to complete renovation plans and haven’t been able to raise rents enough to keep pace with operating costs and debt payments. [I'm an image]( [Multifamily goes from darling to distress in Texas]( For the past few years, Texas multifamily was one of the hottest real estate investments in the country. Not anymore. [I'm an image]( [CrowdStreet responds after Nightingale fiasco]( Real estate crowdfunding platform CrowdStreet came under fire after tens of millions of investor dollars allegedly went missing from accounts connected to Nightingale Properties. [I'm an image]( [Former Freddie Mac CEO distances himself from Meridian Capital]( David Brickman joined Ralph Herzka’s Meridian Capital Group in 2021 to help launch the firm’s lending affiliate. Then, he resigned from his role as executive chairman. The reason? His former employer, Freddie Mac, began an investigation of his new firm. [I'm an image]( [CA Ventures on other end of eviction at Chicago HQ]( 2023 was a year to forget for CA Ventures and its CEO, Tom Scott. The trouble ramped up in August when a series of lawsuits laid out the firm's money troubles. It was facing eviction from its own headquarters, not to mention a luxury box at the United Center, home of the Chicago Bulls.   [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [LinkedIn]( [YouTube]( [Manage Newsletters]( | [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Subscribe]( | [Advertise]( The Real Deal 450 West 31st Street, New York, NY 10001 ©2023 TheRealDeal. All rights reserved. [View Online](