The Easton Group's Next Generation Taking 50-Year-Old Family Business In New Direction

Almost every Sunday after church, Ed Easton and his seven siblings would pile into the family Buick, cruising Pittsburgh's horizons past rolling farmland. Their father, Samuel M. Easton, a lumberman with an eye for opportunity, would talk business as they drove, plotting how to turn his profits into new lots across the city.

Ed Easton took those lessons with him when he moved to Miami for college, stayed in the area and founded his own real estate firm, Hopkins Easton, in October 1974 with then-partner Carter Hopkins. Today, the Miami-based Easton Group owns more than 5M SF of largely industrial properties, but beyond that, it's a vehicle for the Easton family legacy — two of Ed's sons work for the firm, as does one of his nephews and even two grandchildren.

“I would be not telling the truth if I said I planned all that, because I didn't,” Easton, 80, said of his family entering the business. “But I think they could feel the love of family and the love of real estate.”

Today, the next generation of Eastons is taking the patriarch on a ride to new horizons of the real estate industry.

Last month, The Easton Group bought the shuttered Sears anchor and the JCPenney store at Miami International Mall in Doral. Easton said his son, Eddie Easton, who has been with the business for 35 years, found the deals.

“Eddie is very shy, publicity-wise, and so he pretends like I'm doing everything,” Easton said. “Really, he's doing 90% of it, and I'm doing 10.”

In early October, Easton bought the JCPenney for $12.2M. That store is leased to the retailer until 2040, and no development is imminent. But a few weeks later, The Easton Group bought the former Sears and surrounding parking lot for $17M. Easton took out a $12M loan from New Wave Loans for the 13-acre property, where it plans to build up to 500 units. 

”We heard about these properties one at a time becoming available, and we bought them because we're paying basically a million an acre in a market that we think is worth $3 million an acre, and figured something good could happen to us because of that,” Easton said.

A high-rise redevelopment of a big-box store is a departure from the types of projects Easton has pursued in the 50 years since he launched his business.

Recognizing that apartment projects require a different set of expertise and are time-consuming to execute, Easton said he brought on a joint venture partner to help with the development. He declined to name his partner in the project, which is in the process of getting zoning finalized.

The JCPenney deal is more typical. Without a path to redevelopment for more than 15 years, the property is a long-term investment, not a buy-and-build deal like the Sears on the other side of the mall.

“We haven't been quick deal people for a long time,” Easton said. “Thirty-five years ago, we fortunately were OK financially that we could hold on to properties, and we decided not to sell from that point forward … You end up holding these properties and you depreciate them to a very low value, and then you have to die with them to get the stepped-up basis, and that's kind of where I am.”

Macy's still has an anchor store at the mall, and the former Kohl's anchor was turned into a 110K SF amusement center this year. Retail giant Simon Property Group owns the 303K SF interior store space of the 1M SF Miami International Mall, which has struggled. 

The $160M loan on that property was moved into special servicing in February after Simon failed to pay it off on its maturity date. In July, the mall was appraised at a value of $159M, a 59% drop from its $391M valuation in 2013.

Simon negotiated a forbearance with the special servicer on its debt, paying $2M in equity to push the maturity date to February 2025, Bisnow previously reported. It has the option to pay another $3M to further extend the maturity, according to special servicer commentary.

“It’s been a pleasure dealing with the Simon people, nothing but honorable,” Easton said. “David Simon I’ve known for a while, and he’s just been a real gentleman about everything.”

Easton declined to comment on if he's been in talks with Simon to purchase the rest of the property but did say he could foresee "one or two more opportunities" to buy pieces of the site. If that were to happen, chances are it won't be Ed's idea but that of his offspring.

“They're doing everything, and I'm just saying yes or no and wiring money,” Easton said. “That's really my job, but they don’t need a yes or no anymore. They're so good at what they do, I just say yes.”

The motivation for the new development came from Eddie Easton, who serves as senior vice president of sales and investments, and C.J. and Dalton Easton, Ed's two grandchildren who work at the firm. All three, he said, "made a huge difference" in evaluating new property deals.

“Whenever my son came into the business … he kept trying to talk me into doing things. I was dealing with older numbers and a strategy that wasn't as aggressive as it probably should have been,” Ed Easton said. “He kept talking me into doing things that I didn't want to do.”

A prime example of that influence came 11 years ago when The Easton Group paid $3.5M to acquire a 48-acre lake in Broward County. It partnered with DCT Industrial Trust, which was later bought by Prologis, and spent two years filling the 16-foot deep lake to build a $55M, 700K SF industrial project in 2015.

These types of deals are a long way from when the business was founded 50 years ago. Ed Easton and Carter Hopkins each invested $250 to launch the company.

The firm’s first project was a property along 129th Street in Miami. To acquire the land and construct the warehouse, Easton had to raise $7K — a significant hurdle at the time. During the 90 days that it took for Easton to raise the money, he turned to his late friend Fred Faulkner for help.

Faulkner agreed to lend $1K, but with a stipulation.

“He said, ‘I'll lend you $1,000 but don't tell anybody, because I don’t invest with anybody who doesn't have skin in the game,’” Easton said. “That's been a motto.” 

After launching with industrial properties, Easton and Hopkins expanded into retail, office and apartment buildings. However, Easton soon discovered these sectors were overly complex. By selling the apartments and concentrating exclusively on industrial real estate, he positioned the company as what it's known for today.

“Nobody liked the warehouses. 50 years ago, they were knocking it like it was the bottom of the totem pole, and I liked it better because operationally, it was much easier than apartments,” Easton said. “I just felt better going into industrial so I sold the apartments and focused on industrial.”

Later down the road, Hopkins left Miami and the business, prompting Easton to find a new partner. Calvin Babcock bought Hopkins' shares, creating Easton Babcock. After 20 years, Calvin exited, selling his stake to Easton and his son, who rebranded the business as The Easton Group, Ed Easton said on a podcast.

The turning point for the company came with the development of International Corporate Park, a 300-acre master-planned business hub. The project, which Easton credits to his son, was a milestone for the duo, their first big success, Easton said.

Built in 1999 and spanning more than 1M SF, the firm bought the property for about $50 per SF. This site now serves as the headquarters for The Easton Group. That was more than three decades after the octagenarian developer came to Miami as a student at the University of Miami, and he never felt the need to leave.

“I felt like I died and went to heaven when I left Pittsburgh and came down here,” Easton said. “I just couldn't believe the sunshine, and I could be outdoors all the time.”

Easton has built his empire upon family and three principles — trust, commitment and caring. Reflecting on his journey, Easton emphasized the importance of delivering on promises, values that have guided him throughout his career.

As he looks to the future, Easton is confident in the legacy he is leaving behind for his family, trusting them to shape it as they see fit. But he isn’t nearing the end of his time and has no plans to slow down.

“I would never stop doing what I do,” Easton said. “I'll probably die making a deal somewhere.”