In 2000, Doherty and Kelly formed Eastern with a focus on investment, development, and management of commercial real estate. To build Eastern, the principals sought out highly qualified professionals from multiple disciplines and created an entrepreneurial team with a great depth of experience and expertise. The team’s first-rate capabilities are an integral component of Eastern’s competitive advantage.

Eastern has acquired and developed in excess of 10 million square feet of strategic office and retail projects which were successfully repositioned. From 2000-2006, Eastern aggressively sought to expand its portfolio with a roster of prominent national retail and regional commercial tenants in prime locations. Key strategic partnerships with major national retailers, cultivated through the relationships of Eastern’s principals with industry leaders, established Eastern as one of the most prominent retail landlords in New England. Eastern has overseen development of over twenty Stop & Shop anchored centers in New England. Similarly, the company’s strong relationship with Home Depot lead to the development of home improvement stores totaling over 1 million square feet, helping to solidify Home Depot’s position in the New England marketplace. Overall Eastern has engaged in over one hundred of transactions with the industry’s top retailers in prime northeast locations, including Shaw’s Supermarket, Roche Bros., Lowe’s Home Improvement, Target, Kohl’s, TJ Maxx, H&M and CVS Pharmacy.

As the commercial real estate market became overheated and values soared in 2006, Eastern’s principals recognized the opportunity to strategically divest and refinance the Eastern portfolio, yielding exceptional returns and positioning the Company for future growth. Eastern has recognized that sound execution of an exit strategy can be a key component to a successful deal.

In 1991, prior to the formation of Eastern, Dan Doherty and Brian Kelly co-founded Atlantic Retail Properties. Under Kelly and Doherty’s innovative leadership, Atlantic Retail Properties quickly grew into New England’s largest and most active broker of retail properties. Atlantic completed over 800 transactions totaling in excess of 25 million square feet and set the industry standard for market knowledge and creative deal making skills.

While heading Atlantic, the two principals made a bold real estate investment that became a widely publicized success story. Their purchase at auction of the 1.2 million square foot former Wang corporate headquarters located in Lowell, Massachusetts closed in 1994 for a stunning $525,000. After a four-year transformation to a first-class multi-tenant office tower, the property was sold for over $100 million in 1998.