Commercial Observer’s Liam la Guerre recently sat down with Eastern Consolidated’s Daun Paris and Peter Hauspurg, who discussed what’s new at Eastern, the company’s investment growth, recent deals such as the $115 million closing of 139 E. 56th St., and what they think is the next hot market.

Per the article:

Daun Paris and Peter Hauspurg are the married real estate version of Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell: They’ve been together for decades, both professionally and personally. In that time they have had three children: a daughter Alexandra (29), a son Philip (30) and a company named Eastern Consolidated (36).

Despite all of their time spent side by side, they couldn’t be any more different when talking about their eldest.

Don’t get us wrong, their visions are the same, of course, but Paris, 61, constantly touts points like how Eastern’s brokers speak 17 languages, or that there is a culture of sharing information at the company. Hauspurg meanwhile is eager to describe trends, reveal specific markets that show promise and explain why they are able to close deals.

The duo started the business with just “a desk and two phones,” she pointed out, but today it has 125 people (100 of which are brokers) buzzing in the office at 355 Lexington Avenue between East 40th and East 41st Streets. That expansion has picked up since Eastern started the capital advisory and retail leasing arms in 2014.

And Hauspurg, 64, was excited to talk about deals: He led Eastern teams on a $115 million sale of a development site owned by Himmel + Meringoff Properties and Riese Organization at 139 East 56th Street to Welltower and Hines in April 2016. And in September the sale of an $86 million portfolio with 200 units in Manhattan and Brooklyn from RD Management to buyers Stone Street Properties and Arbor Management Acquisition Company. On the retail side, Hauspurg explained how the company has led the charge on Ninth Avenue storefronts between West 45th and West 53rd Streets in Midtown. The company has signed a string of 14 restaurant concepts there in recent years. Most recently, it leased space for Kings of Kobe, famous for its hotdogs and hamburgers, in a 10-year deal in 600 square feet at 790 Ninth Avenue.

While their differing personalities (hers is bubbly while his is lawyer-like) contribute to how they talk about their company, a large part of the disparity is that they hold wholly different positions at the firm. Paris has overseen the operations side of the business since 1989. Hauspurg is actively closing deals, finding leads and mentoring junior brokers.

In part due to their love, Eastern is seeing increasing revenue across its three lines of business. Its investment sales grew to $1.7 billion last year from just $900 million in 2013. Last year, it represented tenants and landlords on 110 retail deals, totaling more than 206,000 square feet—ranking in the top 10 of brokers in retail leasing in the city, according to CoStar Group data. It also advised on $750 million in financing in 2016 up from $745 million in 2015. This year Eastern has already worked on $544 million in financing.

For the full interview and article, click here.