Eastern Consolidated founder Peter Hauspurg dies

Veteran broker ran one of city's most active I-sales firms; mentored top dealmakers

Peter Hauspurg (Photo by Adam Pincus)
Peter Hauspurg (Photo by Adam Pincus)

Peter Hauspurg, who as co-founder of Eastern Consolidated ran one of New York’s most active investment-sales shops and played a broader role as a gregarious emissary of the city’s commercial real estate industry and a mentor of a generation of dealmakers, died Tuesday at his home in Santa Monica. He was 67.

Hauspurg and his wife Daun Paris started the firm in 1981, and grew it into one of the largest investment-sales focused shops in New York, with clients such as Gary Barnett’s Extell Development, Silverstein Properties and Forest City Ratner. One of the brokerage’s longest relationships was with the Durst Organization; over an 18-year period, Eastern helped the developer assemble the site for One Bryant Park, the office tower at Sixth Avenue and 42nd Street that’s now home to Bank of America. Douglas Durst, chair of the Durst Organization, described Hauspurg as a rational and reasonable voice in a hyperbolic world.”

In 2015, Eastern did nearly $2 billion in deals, according to The Real Deal’s annual ranking.  Notable transactions for the firm include Barnett’s $100 million sale of a NoMad development site at 30-36 East 29th Street to Rockefeller Group; Abraham Fruchthandler’s $50 million buy of a Harlem portfolio; and the sale of a $115 million East Side development site to Hines and Welltower.

Amid the 2018 market slowdown, the firm, like others in the industry, faced severe financial challenges. After being unable to find a buyer for the firm, Hauspurg and Paris shut it down. By then, Eastern Consolidated had shrunk to about a 100-broker shop.

After the closure, it appeared as though Hauspurg and Paris would step away from the grinding work of real estate dealmaking and administration. They surprised many when they joined ABS Partners Real Estate as investors.

Several top brokers came up under Hauspurg, including David Schechtman, Lipa Lieberman, Brian Ezratty, Adelaide Polsinelli and Robin Abrams.

“He was a mentor to thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of brokers and real estate professionals,” said Gregg Schenker of ABS. “They [Hauspurg and Paris] had moved [to California] for this beautiful chapter of their life. But he was still a New York City real estate deal person.”

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Hauspurg relished his broader ambassadorial role in the industry. He was a popular fixture at the annual Real Estate Board of New York gala, and was on the trade group’s board of governors. In 2015, he received REBNY’s Louis Smadbeck Broker Recognition Award.

“In word and deed, Peter was an industry leader,” said REBNY president James Whelan.

“He was an inspiration in my early years,” said Bob Knakal, chair of JLL’s investment-sales division. “It is our people who make our industry what it is, and Peter was definitely one of the good guys.”

Marcus & Millichap’s Eric Anton, who worked at Eastern for 14 years, said Hauspurg was “very generous of spirit and a terrifically well rounded man. He was an excellent broker, an athlete and a family man.”

Anton said his fondest memory of Hauspurg was one time when they went fishing in the Bahamas.

“That’s how I remember Peter; he was a timeless, calm, class act.”