CRE Industry Leader Peter Hauspurg Dies at 67

Peter Hauspurg, Co-Founder of Eastern Consolidated. Image courtesy of ABS Partners Real Estate

Peter Hauspurg, who co-founded Eastern Consolidated and was considered one of New York City’s top dealmakers, was remembered yesterday as a kind and generous man who mentored many of the city’s best brokers, while creating a powerhouse investment advisory firm. He died Tuesday at his Santa Monica, Calif., home at the age of 67, according to his wife and business partner, Daun Paris.

“In word and deed, Peter was an industry leader,” said James Whelan, president of The Real Estate Board of New York where Hauspurg was a member of the REBNY Board of Governors from 1996 to 2017. “His legacy will live on through those he mentored and whose lives he touched.”

“Peter was an extraordinary person,” said Gregg Schenker, president of ABS Partners Real Estate, which Hauspurg joined as a co-managing partner and investor in October 2018. “He was highly respected for his business capability and devoted to his family. Peter was generous with his time and always tried to be helpful to others. He was highly principled, honorable and filled with integrity.”

Gail Donovan, who was the chief marketing/communications officer at Eastern Consolidated, said he will “be remembered not only as an extraordinary broker and lender in the New York City real estate industry but also as a mentor to hundreds of young brokers. It was an honor to know him and work for him.”

Ron Solarz, an executive managing director at Newmark, was one of the many brokers Hauspurg mentored over the years. Solarz, who worked at Eastern Consolidated for 24 years before the firm closed in 2018, described him as “a superstar in every way.”

“He was a very generous, special guy in so many ways. He was a great boss, a great friend and I loved him,” said Solarz.

Eric Anton, a senior managing director who leads The Anton Group at Marcus & Millichap and  worked with Hauspurg at Eastern Consolidated for nearly 14 years, said Hauspurg was a great leader who was fun to be around but always calm and cool even during the tough times like the dot-com bust, 9/11 and Great Recession.

“One of the things that I remember impressed me most about Peter, whether we were taking the subway to a meeting downtown or a private jet, was that he treated everybody equally. From the doorman at our office building to a billionaire real estate owner, he was always respectful and straightforward with everybody he met,” Anton said.

Building a business

Hauspurg was a graduate of Duke University and Fordham Law School. A tax attorney before making a career change, he co-founded Eastern Consolidated, a brokerage and investment services company that was consistently ranked as one of the city’s top commercial real estate firms, with Daun Paris in 1981. The two, who were married two years later, split duties at the full-service company with Hauspurg serving as chairman, CEO and dealmaker, while Paris was the president and handled hiring, training and day-to-day management.

A leading New York City-based middle-market firm, Eastern Consolidated and Hauspurg worked with the city’s top commercial real estate developers and companies including Extell Development, Silverstein Properties, The Moinian Group, SL Green Realty Corp., Forest City Ratner, as well as the McSam Hotel Group, among others. He worked for more than 18 years with longtime client The Durst Organization to assemble the parcels for Durst to build One Bryant Park, the 55-story, 1,200-foot-tall skyscraper at 6th Avenue and 42nd Street known as the Bank of America Tower. The firm was active in all five boroughs, with a team of more than 100 entrepreneurial brokers and was at the forefront of deals across the commercial real estate spectrum including office, multifamily, retail, hospitality and development.

In July 2018, Hauspurg and Paris, unable to find a buyer for the business, closed Eastern Consolidated. They surprised many a few months later when they joined ABS Partners along with Peter Takiff, the longtime CFO at Eastern. The three became senior members of ABS Partners, tasked with building the acquisition pipeline and expanding new relationships at the Manhattan-based firm that currently has a diverse portfolio of 70 properties and assets under management spanning more than 13 million square feet. Schenker said Hauspurg and Paris had recently moved to Santa Monica to be closer to their two children and two grandchildren.

Giving back

Hauspurg was committed to philanthropic efforts in the New York area and was a current vice president and former president of the Board of Trustees of the JCCA, which provides housing, medical care and vocational training to families in the Tri-State region. He and his wife were active in the JCCA, creating new programs, fundraising and donating a building to the organization. Hauspurg also rehabilitated three Harlem apartment buildings under the New York City Third Party Transfer Program to create affordable housing in the community.