Prospect Capital Group Joining Eastern Consolidated
By Terence Cullen April 30, 2015 1:30 pm
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Prospect Capital Group is joining Eastern Consolidated as the company beefs up its capital advisory division, Commercial Observer has learned.
Adam Hakim and Sam Zabala, the partners of PCG, will become managing directors at Eastern Consolidated and work alongside Jonathan Aghravi, who started the division last year, the company announced. James Murad, a PCG associate, is also joining the company and will manage relationships with clients and capital markets, along with underwriting properties and projects.
The new members officially started working at Eastern Consolidated’s at 355 Lexington Avenue between East 40th and East 41st Streets today, according to Mr. Hakim.
Prospect Capital dissolved and the brokers signed on with Eastern Consolidated, according to a spokesman for Eastern Consolidated.
The announcement comes on the heels of Eastern Consolidated losing David Schechtman, Lipa Lieberman and Abie Kassin to Meridian Capital Group, but negotiations to bring the financial group at PCG into the Eastern Consolidated have been going on for some time, the spokesman said.
“We have been talking about this and talking with them for many months now, and I am excited,” Mr. Hakim told CO. “They are a large, family-run business. A corporate family, I always thought.”
The PCG partners, whose expertise is in structured financing deals, will continue focusing on those in the capital advisory division, which arranges origination of commercial real estate debt and financing, according to Eastern Consolidated. Since it launched in early 2014, the division has arranged for an aggregate of $500 million in transactions.
Messrs. Hakim and Aghravi will focus on new clients, he added, while Mr. Zabala, whose specialty is in structuring deals, will focus on placement. “He is very good at structure and design of structure,” Mr. Hakim said. “That’s where Sam really brings strength.”
Mr. Zabala started PCG six years ago following 15 years working in real estate financing for CapitalSource, PB Capital and Tishman Speyer Properties. Mr. Hakim spent 17 years at GCP Capital Group, and specialized in several levels of deal making, according to Eastern Consolidated.
“Adam and Sam have been highly regarded advisors throughout their careers, and have built long-standing relationships with a diverse group of top real estate professionals,” said Daun Paris, the president of Eastern Consolidated, in prepared remarks. “The combination of their exceptional deal making skills and sophisticated market knowledge will add further depth to our rapidly expanding capabilities.”
