Brewster Hague currently serves as Vice President, Investment Sales at Chicago-based Greenstone Partners. He brokers multiple asset types including retail, mixed-use and development opportunities in Chicago.
Tell us about your background. Where did you grow up. Where did you go to school?
I grew up in a Chicago suburb called River Forest. My parents grew up there, and it was a great place to be raised. I have three siblings, all of whom are sisters, who certainly taught me patience early on. I went to Roosevelt Middle School, followed by Fenwick High School in Oak Park. For college, I attended Marquette University in Milwaukee, majoring in both real estate and finance, and was an active member of the real estate club, serving as the captain of the school’s real estate case competition team.
How did you get your start in the industry?
Real estate was a part of my life from an early age. My grandfather, Bern Grizaffi, did real estate development from the 1970s until the 1990s, which led my father, Tim Hague, to start doing development work in the Chicago area. There was always talk at the dinner table while I was growing up, and that’s where I first found excitement and enjoyment in real estate. I even remember the occasional 5:30 a.m. Saturday trips — driving to new markets or attending the grand opening of a retail tenant in a new development.
When it came time to graduate from Marquette and enter the real estate world, I found a great opportunity at Marcus & Millichap. This is where I spent the first five years of my career. I formed great relationships that I still value today.
Did you have a mentor who helped you get on your feet, or is there someone you turn to now for support?
The real estate program at Marquette does an excellent job assisting its students with incredible knowledge and real-time case studies. Andy Hunt, the director of the real estate program, goes above and beyond for his students and truly thinks out of the box. This led me to an internship with Imperial Realty, where I had the opportunity to work with Al Klairmont and Theron May. Currently, I can turn to any single Greenstone Partners team member for support. Thank you to Danny Spitz, Jason St. John, Peter Weitz and Leo Solarte for creating an environment of collaboration and camaraderie for each employee.
What does an average day in the life of Brewster look like?
I typically get into the office at around 7 a.m. to catch up on emails for a few hours. You never know what the day will look like, and it could require some late hours at the office, so I find mornings are my time for peace and quiet. I consider myself an organized person, and I typically have a to-do list of what I’d like to get done that day. That being said, my fiancé jokes about me having a to-do list for my to-do list. I usually have a very active day with many client interactions, property tours, and meeting new people. Once I am home, I typically cook dinner — cooking is one of my hobbies. I like trying new recipes and cooking from scratch. I find it to be very calming at times.
What do you like most about your job?
The thing I like most is being a trusted advisor to clients rather than focusing on the transactional aspects of real estate. I believe it leads to having more meaningful relationships with my clients and has even led to friendships that often span many different generations.
For example, I recently sold a property in Lincoln Park for a husband and wife in their late 70s. The sellers, my clients, were one of the first meetings I had over seven years ago when I started in the commercial real estate business. Although they never imagined selling this property (which was constantly reiterated) we would meet once a quarter to catch up, talk about how to increase the building’s cashflow and overall market trends and conditions. Twenty-eight meetings later, the seller tasked and entrusted me to exclusively market the property. We hit the ground running pre-covid and procured multiple offers within two weeks. Then COVID happened. Although we hit a short “pause” on marketing to regroup during the pandemic, we returned to the market, again hitting the ground running, and ended up selling the asset to a private investor based out of Madison, Wisconsin.
Looking to the future, what do you hope to achieve/work on that you have not already?
On a professional level, I hope to remain a trusted advisor to my clients and continue to be a person they can turn to in the industry.
On a company level, my goal is to become a partner and help Greenstone Partners expand and grow its market share to become a major brokerage company in the Chicagoland area. We are incredibly well-versed with urban retail and mixed-use assets in downtown Chicago and the surrounding neighborhoods. In addition, we just started to build on our multifamily division in the city, which is very exciting.
What kind of changes do you hope to see in the industry in the near future?
I would like to see the industry become less male-dominated and have more diversity. At Greenstone, we are conscious of this need and consistently make efforts to implement diversity internally.
Generally speaking, it’s fun seeing technology progress further and assisting in all real estate needs. Advances in technology make it more feasible for investors to acquire assets outside of their home state and, more importantly, make it very easy for them to do some background checking on people/brokers they are considering doing business with.
How do you spend your time away from the office?
I really enjoy going to concerts for live music, being on a golf course, especially the Oak Park Country Club, and traveling as much as possible to new places.
What are you looking forward to most in 2022?
I got engaged last year, and our wedding is set for November. This is definitely at the top of the list of things I am looking forward to. After the wedding, we plan to travel around South America for our honeymoon, a region we’ve never explored.
Professionally, I am looking forward to actively helping expand and add team members to our company — brokers, marketing and administrative staff members. In particular, I enjoy mentoring and assisting the younger brokers and helping them get on their feet. I look forward to providing someone with the advice and mentorship I’ve been fortunate to have throughout the years.