Eastern Consolidated Co-Founders Land at ABS Partners [Updated]
Peter Hauspurg and Daun Paris are joining the firm's acquisitions team
After closing their real estate firm Eastern Consolidated this summer, husband-and-wife co-founders, Peter Hauspurg and Daun Paris, are joining forces with ABS Partners Real Estate, Commercial Observer has learned.
Hauspurg is coming in as co-managing partner; Paris will be a senior member of the firm. Paris described the arrangement as “co-investing” with ABS.
While Hauspurg will be focused on acquiring new properties, “I’m going to be focusing on [our] own portfolio of properties,” Paris said, meaning the multi-family and retail assets that she and Hauspurg have accumulated over the past 15 or so years. Paris estimated that the pair’s portfolio includes 400 apartments across New York City, as well as retail.
“We’ve gotten calls from a whole bunch of folks, having been in the business for 40 years,” Hauspurg told CO. “We sort of decided we wanted to do something other than the brokerage business. We have been buying [privately] for the past 15 years for friends and family and we thought it was an exciting thing to try…I’m 65 years old, so if you want to try it, better to do it now than at 70.”
Also, ABS has scooped up another of Eastern’s prized players, Peter Takiff, who had served as the CFO of the former firm, who will also join Paris and Hauspurg in focusing on the firm’s acquisition pipeline.
ABS, the nearly 20-year-old firm which offers a range of real estate services including leasing, has a robust investment portfolio, which consists of 96 properties totaling 13.3 million square feet, according to a release from ABS.
“Peter [Hauspurg] and I have known each other for many, many years,” said Gregg Schenker, the president and co-managing partner at ABS. “The foundation [of them joining ABS] is from that relationship. Also, Earle [Altman, the chairman of ABS] serves on the M&T Mortgage Advisory Committee with him. That led to a discussion.”
Hauspurg said he hoped that Eastern’s long history in the business would mean some client carryover in his new role at ABS.
“I would hope that in sourcing deals and raising equity there would be some overlap” with former clients, Hauspurg said, “investing in other peoples’ deals, or openings for us to invest in their deals.”
Update: This story was edited to clarify Hauspurg and Paris’ roles and include a quote from Paris.
