'He Was An Icon': Eastern Consolidated Co-Founder Peter Hauspurg Dies At 67
Peter Hauspurg, who co-founded powerhouse investment sales firm Eastern Consolidated, died at home in California Tuesday. He was 67.
Commercial Observer first reported news of his death, citing confirmation from his wife, Daun Paris. Hauspurg co-founded Eastern Consolidated with Paris in 1981, and the pair married two years later.
“He had integrity, class and humility. In spite of that, he was one of the smartest, most respected and successful people I know, in a competitive, sometimes nasty business,” Compass Vice Chairman Robin Abrams, who worked with Hauspurg at Eastern, said in an email. “I was fortunate to be embraced by Peter and Daun as part of the Eastern Consolidated ‘family’. He will be missed by so many in our industry.”
Multiple big-name brokers, like Brian Ezratty, David Schechtman and Adelaide Polsinelli, made their names at the brokerage shop. However, the firm abruptly closed its doors in 2018 after 37 years in business, with the city’s shrinking investment sales market blamed as the cause. Around 100 brokers and staffers were at the firm at the time.
“We saw the writing on the wall, but we were never anticipating anything like this,” Hauspurg said in an interview with Bisnow in May about the impact of the pandemic on the brokerage world. “There are no transactions coming in … [but] the brokers that are left standing will do really well. That's what we’ve seen in past decades.”
After closing Eastern, both Paris and Hauspurg joined ABS Partners Real Estate in October 2018 and moved to the West Coast this year.
Polsinelli, now vice chairman at Compass who previously worked at Eastern, said Hauspurg “was always available for support, for perspective and for advice. He had a warm personality and was an advocate for his brokers.”
Ackman-Ziff Managing Director Marion Jones, another Eastern alumna, described Hauspurg and Paris as an "incredible team."
"They built an inclusive and diverse culture at Eastern long before it was in vogue. They were proud of the many languages spoken under their roof and fostered an environment in which both male and female professionals could rise to senior ranks," she said. "They saw this as a competitive advantage, and I think they also just enjoyed having different types of personalities around."
Hauspurg, who worked as a lawyer before entering commercial real estate, brokered the $115M sale of 139 East 56th St. in 2016, and major clients of Eastern included Extell Development, Silverstein Properties and Forest City Ratner.
“He was as brilliant as he was kindhearted; he was more than a mentor, he was an icon in the industry and he will be missed,” Meridian Capital President James Famularo, who also worked at Eastern before it closed, wrote in an email. “It’s absolutely heartbreaking news.”
