The real estate investors from Brooklyn’s ultra-insular Hasidic neighborhoods have spent more than $2.5 billion on acquisitions in five prime Brooklyn neighborhoods over the last decade, and their business practices are evolving to take on increasingly challenging development projects. The Real Deal‘s Mark Maurer appeared on “All Things Considered” to discuss his investigative feature, “Learning and Earning: Hasidic Brooklyn’s Real Estate Machers.”

Maurer, the associate web editor at TRD, analyzed the maze of LLCs and frontmen who protect some of the industry’s most hidden and active players. “We wanted to go down the rabbit hole a bit and see how big this empire really is,” he told host Richard Hake.”These are not household names, but they are increasingly active and they’re taking on increasingly ambitious and sophisticated projects,” including the re-development of the Rheingold Brewery in Bushwick, which he said will “totally revolutionize” the rental market in that neighborhood.

Most of the investors are little-known outside their religious enclave — with few, if any, documented interviews or photographs ever taken of the biggest machers, including Rabsky Group’s Simon Dushinsky, Bruman Realty’s Joseph Brunner and All Year Management’s Yoel Goldman. [WNYC] — TRD