Eastern Consolidated Welcomes Prospect Capital

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor 

Adam Hakim

The Capital Advisory Division of Eastern Consolidated will be expanding, with the absorption of Prospect Capital Group, a boutique capital markets firm, the latter announced late last week. PCG partners Adam Hakim, 49, and Sam Zabala, 40, will both become managing directors at Eastern.

The two men are specialists in highly structured financing deals, such as mezzanine and senior portfolio debt transactions with various developers/owners, and have overseen a combined $8 billion in transactions. They are bringing their book of business to Eastern, where they will work with managing director Jonathan Aghravi, who launched the Capital Advisory Division in 2014.

“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,” Daun Paris, president of Eastern Consolidated, said in a release.

Sam Zabala

Zabala founded PCG in 2009 after spending 15 years as a CRE finance professional on both the equity and debt sides at CapitalSource, PB Capital and Tishman Speyer Properties. He holds an MBA with a concentration in finance from New York University’s Stern School of Business and a bachelor’s degree from Tufts University, with double majors in economics and international relations.

Hakim joined PCG last September, after 17 years at GCP Capital Group, where he was involved with raising capital for hospitality, multi-family construction and transitional assets across all levels of the capital stack. He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Michigan.

“Twenty years ago, guys bought real estate by themselves,” Hakim told Commercial Property Executive. But with deals becoming steadily more complex, he added, “no one can do it by themselves” any longer in CRE finance. Hakim told CPE he values the combination of finance and brokerage expertise that the combination of PCG and Eastern creates.

Accompanying Zabala and Hakim to Eastern is PCG associate James Murad, who began his career at GCP Capital, where he handled analysis for the brokerage business as well as underwriting for in-house acquisitions and direct lending. He earned bachelor’s degrees in investment finance and real estate from the University of South Carolina.