David Ash Nearly Said Goodbye to Real Estate. Then Something Happened.
By Daniel Edward Rosen October 2, 2012 7:15 am
reprintsThings have always had a habit of coming together in the right way for Mr. Ash. The Brooklyn native went to Yeshiva Flatbush, where he excelled as a point guard in basketball. He went to NYU to take business classes while paying most of his way through school by throwing club parties and working odd jobs for jewelry and paper companies.
Considering a career in real estate after finishing college, he reached out to Alicia Popper, then a broker at Murray Hill Properties, and asked for an interview. While it didn’t lead to a paying job at the firm, he eventually found one at the Kaufman Organization. Within the first five months, he found success working alongside Grant Greenspan and others. For the three years he was at Kaufman, Mr. Ash said he was the top producer among the firm’s 25 brokers.
He eventually narrowed his focus from office leasing to retail leasing, bagging True Religion Jeans as a client and bringing it to 132 Prince Street (Mr. Ash named his firm after the Soho street).
Mr. Ash was intrigued by the prospect of working on the sales side. He had come to know owners through his experience working as a retail broker, and while his career at Kaufman was going strong, he saw a bigger long-term opportunity in sales. He decamped Kaufman for a job at Eastern Consolidated at the very end of 2007.
“I left at the worst possible time you can ever leave anywhere,” he said with a laugh. He was at the firm at 2008 for nine months, but the disastrous sales market forced him to strike out on his own and start his firm.
“Part of what I was doing while I was at Eastern was building relationships,” he said. Working as a matchmaker, pairing seller and buyer in a seamless manner, was more intriguing to him than representing a building exclusively.
“For me personally, I just like working in that kind of framework,” he said. “I’m not pitching you on ‘Hey, let me put it out there and try to get you the best price,’” he said. “I created this business model that worked well within what I do well and plays to my strengths, and it also allows me to bring value to both the buyer and seller.”
When launching Prince Realty Advisors, he knew he was going to compete against two tiers of firms, from the Massey Knakals and the Eastern Consoldateds to the CBREs and Eastdil Secureds.
“I’m more of a matchmaker, where I put people together, and it’s a tough road,” he said.
Being a yenta for investors and sellers did not come easily at first. But now with his monster June behind him, Mr. Ash is looking for another round of good deals and good fortune.
He has three more “substantial” deals in the pipeline that are in the contract stage. He has an eye on expanding the size of his company from just himself, his phone and a computer to an associate or two.
While his mind is on finishing deals and future growth, the lesson from the fallow years of his firm has not been lost on him.
“In this business, you’re only good as your last deal,” said Mr. Ash. “I’m trying to do the best I can to use these deals as leverage to substantiate a business model that I truly believe in.”
drosen@observer.com
