(Illustration by Alexis Manrodt for The Real Deal)
The Real Deal’s investigative feature on the Prodigy fiasco has won an award from the New York Press Club for consumer reporting.
The organization honored the story “Behind the biggest real estate crowdfunding implosion,” written by Sylvia Varnham O’Regan and Mary Diduch.
The feature detailed the ordeal of thousands of small-time investors, many from foreign countries, who invested with Prodigy Network to buy into Manhattan real estate. An estimated $690 million was invested, only for it to seemingly disappear as the company stopped responding to increasingly panicked messages. Danielle Balbi was the primary editor on the story.
The New York Press awards are prestigious and recognized across the country for honoring excellence in journalism. Other winners this year in the consumer reporting category include The Wall Street Journal and The Hechinger Report/NBC News.
The Real Deal previously won a New York Press Club award for crime reporting in the magazine category. In 2018 senior reporter Konrad Putzier’s coverage of Bar Works netted the award, which was shared with editors Hiten Samtani and James Kleimann.
Earlier this year, The Real Deal also earned a general excellence award from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. The winning submission included a feature on 220 Park South, a profile of Mohammed Hadid, a look at HFZ Capital Group and a story about the broker-fee ban, as well as the crowdfunding scandal story.
