Classifieds - Houlihan

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INSIDEV
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Classifieds
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Journal News IThursday, December.15,'-"2=OO=8
~~_
MARKETS
2
BUSINESS
IN THE BURBS 2
A
Houlihan is home
to fifth generation
Daughters say dad
gave no push to join
real estate company
Jeny Gleeson
The Journal News
As James J. Houlihan tells it,
there has been no pressure placed
on family members to sign up with
the Harrison-based commercial
real estate and financing enterprise that includes his name.
So ifs striking that this year his
daughters Christie and Kelly Houlihan have become the fifth generation ofthe clan to join the company.
No pressure? None at all? In a
recent interview, the Houlihans insist ifs so, but Kelly Houlihan
talked about how she sees the
company in a way that suggests an
interior impulse is also at play. At
its new offices at 4 W. Red Oak
Drive, the company is unpacking
framed photos of Houlihans who
have helped run the business.
"As we got older, we realized
how important this company is to
____
our family, how it spells the Arneriean dream," said Kelly Houlihan,
23. It would be "a sad thing to let
it go. I would feel responsible."
Ifs a line that stretches back to
1891, when Daniel Houlihan
founded a construction business
in the Bronx years after immigrating from County Kerry in Ireland.
The company has evolved and
grown through the decades. It
added at least four business partners from outside the family, including Howard L Parnes, a famiIyfriend who joined in 1967. In the
wake of the expansion, its corporate title has grown a little wordy:
Houlihan-Parnes/iCap Realty Advisors lLC.
Its GHP Office Realty division
holds more than 2 million square
feet of office space in the New
York metro region. The business
also invests in mortgages and
owns apartment buildings around
the country.
The company moved to Scarsdale in 1973, and again in 2000
when it acquired offices at 1 W.
Red Oak Drive in Harrison. TIlls
Please see HOUUHAN, 2B
Richard Drew/Th.eAssociated Press
OCt. 2 photo, a newspaper headline with news of the planned federal bailout of the investment banking industry is taped to a booth
floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
fall St. bears bad news in '08
apse of markets
itOry of the year
,imon
dated Press
the speed of a supermarUer, Wall Streetwas upendremade in 2008.
, investment bank Bear
, teetered near collapse,
's sold to JPMorgan Chase
n a shotgun deal·that val:h of Bear's shares at $10
,hly the same price as a
(ark movie ticket. The
had traded at $154 the year
I Lehman Brothers filed for
.ptcy in September. The
failure ofthe finn, which had roots
going back to the Civil War, shook
investors around the globe.
They've yet to recover.
After Lehman's filing, New
York traders started their workdays at 3 a.m., when European
markets opened. Financial chiefs
were summoned to compulsory
weekend meetings at the New
York Fed, where they ordered
takeout and dickered over the fate
of the nation's largest banks. Rumors spread. No investment bank
could be trusted as sound, no
stock could be assumed safe.
In a year heavy with financial
news, Wall Street's woes were vat·
ed the top business story by U.S.
newspaper and broadcast editors
surveyed by The Associated
ppers line ,--~"""--~--....,.,r-="'--::-:="",
make pur) Tuesday
a Borders
Ire in New
ity. Retailvoes were
j news for
,pers who
,ed at the
ce to load
on deals.
Press.
:I.. Wall Street turmoil
The decline in U.S. home prices
and the increase in foreclosures
devalued the mortgage securities
that had been essential to Wall
Streefs money machine. Before
housing crashed, the hanks sold
the securities and reaped fees. After housing crashed, banks held
the securities and watched their
values plummet.
Debt markets, also essential to
Wall Street, froze. Lehman's bankruptcy brought daily rumors that
another bank was tottering many of which proved true.
Washington Mutual Inc., with
$307 billion in assets, collapsed in
September, the largest bank fail·
lsiness
'ieflJ!g__,.....
3 Journal
News
lomberg index
2. Real estate woes
By almost any measure, the
housing market got worse in 2008,
its third year of decline. Home
Please see TOP 10, 20
Seth HarrisonlIbeJournal News
James Houlihan, managing partner of Houlihan-Pames Real Estate
in Harrison, poses this month with his daughters, Kelly, left, and
Christie. Houlihan's daughters recently joined Houlihan-Pames/iCap
Realty Advisors.
Late flurry of shoppers too late to help merchants
Anne D'Innocenzio
The Associated Press
NEW YORK - Last-minute
shoppers headed to the nation's
stores and malls on the day before
Christmas, looking for the final
items they needed and searching
for good deals - but for retailers,
the season was essentially over
Willells(I'be
Jciated Press
ure in U.S. history. Merrill Lynch
sought shelter after its stock
plunged, agreeing to be taken
over by Bank of Arnerica Corp.
Wachovia Corp. agreed to be
bought by Wells Fargo & Co. Investment banks Goldman Sachs
Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley
transformed themselves into commercial banks overnight
The U.S. government lent $150
billion to insurer American International Group Inc. It also took
over mortgage giants Fannie Mae
and Freddie Mac.
long ago.
Many merchants are already
tallying up just how dismal their
sales were in a season expected to
be the worst in decades.
"Ifs beyond theworstfears ofretailers," said C. Britt Beemer, chairman ofArnerica's Research Group.
A lot is at stake. The holiday
shopping season accounts for as
much as 40 percent ofannual profits for many retailers, and the
earnings outlook is growing more
dire every week.
Retailers' woes were good news
for the dwindling number of shoppers who could afford to load up on
deals. With mounds of inventory
still left to sell, merchants are expected to deepen the discounts
even more the day after Christmas.
Butif75 percent off before Dec.
25 didn't make shoppers splurge,
will even bigger deals do the trick
amid mounting worries about layoffs and shrinking retirement
funds?
Crowds were light early yesterday at the Square One Mall in
Saugus, Mass., a suburb north of
Boston. Wander Caldas, a 5().yearold truck driver from Everett,
Mass., said his wife had lost her
job and wasn't working this year,
so the family - including his 12year-old son - had cut its Christmas spending.
"We cut it like in half," Caldas
said. '1bafs why I have to slow
down. n
Caldas said his son wanted an
iPhone and Sony PlayStation 3,
but "ifs not a good time. He11 have
to wait."
In Christmases past, the retail
Please see SHOPPERS, 10
Mortgage
Jobless rate up; consumer spending down
New claims for unemployment benefits rose more
Akio Toyoda,
right, Toyota's
than expected last week, the govemment said yes-
terday, while consumers cut back on their spending
for the fifth straight month amid a deepening recession. The Labor Department reported that initial requests for jobiess benefits rose to a seasonally ad·
justed 586,000 in the week ended Saturday, from
executive vice
president and
grandson of
the company's
founder, takes
an upwardly revised figure of 556,000 the previous
notes as Toy-
week. That's many more than the 560,000 economists hac expected. ~ is also the highest level of
force has grown by about half since then. The finan-
ota President
Katsuaki
Watanabe,
left, speaks at
cial markets took the news in stride. The Dow
a press confer-
claims since November 1982, though the work
Jones industrial average rose by 48.99 points to
close at 8,468.48.
..... ,_ ..
.....
survey
Freddie Mac
national
averages
3().year
5.14%
fixed;ate mortgage,
down trom 5.19%
last week
ence Monday.
15-year
TheAssociared Press
4.91%
.... _ n .... _ ........... _ .......
2D Thursday, December 25, 2008
The Journal News
From Page One
A
Wall Sf. bears bad news in '08
TOP :LO, from :LD
son asked Congress for the second half.
prices continued to fall. Foreclosures hit new highs. Housing
starts hit an alI-fune low in November,:as home builders who couldn't cbmpetewith foreclosure sales
virtually stopped building.
~<JNe have seen no improvement
over the past month in terms of
sales conditions for new homes:'
David Crowe, chief economist of
The National Association ofHome
Builders, said in December.
stocks plunged everywhere from
Hong Kong to Mexico. Russian
authorities closed Moscow's stock
market for days at a fune to con- 9. Madoff Ponzi scheme
tain the panic. The broadest measHow Bernard Madoff earned
ure of U.S. stocks, the Wilshire steady returns of 7 percent to 9
5000, is down more than $7 tril1ion percent a year in good markets
for the year. Diversification and bad was a Wall Street mystery
stopped working - no market for almost 20 years. In December,
was spared.
Madoff said the returns were fiction and his investment company
7. Detroit bailout
was a scam, according to federal
By November, U.S. automak- investigators. As much as $50 bilers' sales had dropped about 16 lion may have evaporated in the
percent for the year. General Mo- scheme, which could be the
tors Corp. and Chrysler LLC largest Ponzi scam in history.
pleaded for loans from Washington, while Ford Motor Co. said it 10. Fund 'breaks the buck'
didn't need a government line of
After Lehman filed for bankcredit, but it would nonetheless ruptcy, the money market Reserve
take one. The Senate quashed a Primary Fund, which had investbailout passed by the House, but ed heavily in Lehman debt, "broke
the Bush administration, saying it the buck," with its assets falling to
would be irresponsible to let the 97 cents for every dollar invested.
industry die, offered $17.4 billion It was the first fune this happened
in rescue loans.
in the money market industry in
14 years. Investors across the
8. Food prices soar
country - who had seen money
As prices for corn, fuel and marketfunds as being safe as cash
grains soared through the sum- - fled for the exits. Reserve alone
mer, American shoppers grappled saw $40 billion in redemption orwith substantial food inflation for ders on Monday and Tuesday the
the first time in 17 years. The U.S. week Lehman filed. As the year
Department of Agriculture fore- ended, Reserve was stillliquidatcast food prices would rise 5 per- ing its funds.
4. World takes beating
It seemed no nation was immune to -the economic woes, as
even Mongolia saw runs on its
banks. Argentina nationalized pension funds. Icelanders saw their
three main banks and their currency collapse. Japan and much of
Europe fell into recession. China's
exports plunged in November by
the largest amount in seven years.
3. $70013 bailout passed
Treasury SecretaryHeuryPaulson first asked Congress to pass a
two-page proposal authorizing the
financial industry bailout. That
plan went down in flames. His
next try, which passed after much
bipartisan arm-twisting, was more
detailed. But the terms kept
changing. Paulson first said the
Treasury would buy troubled as-
5. Oil surges, slumps
Oil's meteoric rise to $147 a bar·
rei in July changed America's
habits. Mass transit saw its largest
quarterly ridership increase in 25
years. Highway driving fell almost
5 percent. Traffic deaths fell.
Truckers went bankrupt.
Then, the global financial crisis
sent oil prices plummeting; they
fell by more than halffrom the beginning of October to the end of
sets from financial institutions,
then, he said it wouldn't. Instead,
the Treasury used most ofthe first
round of bailout money to invest
directly in banks and lenders.
Within two months, the Treasury had allocated the first $350
billion to banks, insurers and automakers. In late December, Paul-
centto 6percentforthe year, compared with an average 2.5percent
for the prior 15 years. The rate of
increase slowed in October and
November, but food prices didn't
fall the way gas prices did.
November, raising questions
about whether Americans' habits
would reverse as quickly as they'd
been established.
6. Global stocks plunge
As nervousness spread in September and credit markets froze,
Verizon aWardl
$33.2M judgmE
Jay Loomis
The Journal News
Verizon Communications Inc.,
the dominant telephone company
in the Lower Hudson Valley, has
won a $33.2 million court judgment against an Internet services
company that was accused of confusing customers by using Internet names similar to Verizon
trademarks.
The court decision stemmed
from a lawsuit
that Manhattanbased Verizon
had filed against
San Franciscobased OnlineNIC in June. In the
case, Verizon alleged that OnlineNIC had engaged in "cybersquatting" by uniawfully registering at least 663 Internet domain
names that were identical to or
similar to Verizon domain names.
'This case should send a clear
message and serve to deter cybersquatters who continue to run
businesses for the primary pur-
pose of misleading consumers:'
said Sarah Deutsch, Verizon vice
president and associate general
counsel. 'tyerizon'intends to con-
tinue to take all steps necessary to
protect our brand and consumers
from Internet frauds and abuses."
In the ruling, U.S. District
Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose,
Cill, indicated that OnlineNIC's
Fifth generation finds home at Houlihan
HOULIHAN, from 1B
month it moved yet again to 4 W.
Red Oak Drive, which was the
headquarters of m Corp. before
m headed to bigger quarters in
White Plains during the summer.
Houlihan-Parnes' biggest recent deals include the closing this
year ofthe sale ofMarymount College in Tarrytown to Education
First for $27 million. GHP and
Benerofe Partners also bought
400 and 500 Westchester Ave. in
Harrison from Verizon CommuniUniversity to take over space at
400 Westchester for classes and
support space that the school formerly had at Marymount.
A Fordham graduate who studied economics and marketing and
gages were.
cussed around the dinner table
when he was growing up. His father, James G. Houlihan, weI·
corned him into the business as a
salesman in the early 1970s but
didn't push hOO into it, the
younger Houlihan said.
He liked working in real estate
because he felt there was more
freedom in it than in other types
Christie Houlihan graduated
from Northwestem University and
worked as a policy researcher for
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's
2006 re-election campaign. She is
now a senior director atiCap and is
studying law at night at Fordham.
Her sister Kelly is a leasing associate for GHP. She studied early childhood education at New
York University and worked as a
teaching assistant atthe city's public school system before joining
the company.
Their father "always made it
clear this was an option if this was
press a family career on him be-
a place we wanted to be," said
came his model for his relations
with his own children in that regard, he said. His daughters said
Christie Houlihan, 25.
Their desks are in an open area
of the office about 30 feet from
NASDAQ.
1,524.90
+48,99
S&P 500 . . +4.99
868.15
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1,397
500 NYSE Camp.
3.626 1,297 NASDAQ
1807 1430 S&P 500
1237 1262 S&P 400
4
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33
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TICKER
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DOW
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A~a'la Rlly Tr
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zation. Noone ever does it yourself," he continued. lrWe tIyto pro-
mote a team concept. ... Thafs
AKR
"' ...
....
N
D
Reach Jerry Gleeson
atjgleeson@lohud.com
or 914-694-5026.
52-WK RANGE oCLDSE
52LO
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9.04 ~ 28.23 14.06
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8468.48
3339.00
358.04
5487.33
1524.90
868.15
508.21
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MAJORS
Foreign
Exchange
The dollar fell
against rivals after data showed
rising U.S. joblessness and
declining consumer spending. The eura
rose to $1,3999
Commodities
1,600":'" Nasdaq composite:....
'
Close: 1,524.90 :
Change: 3.36 \0.2%) :
1,200 ............................. , ..
LOW
8416.86
3307.56
355.24
5444.98
1516.15
861.44
501.39
464.81
8642.71
HIGH
8498.50
3355.19
358.76
5496.09
1527.23
869.79
508.50
471.69
8725.38
Jarden Corp. makes
13usinessWeek list
Jarden Corp. recently was
named to BusinessWeek magazine's list ofthe world's most influ-
what a family is, a team."
$1.4735.
2,000
NAME
Whafs it like working for their
father? Some days they don't see
hOO.
"They don't work under my
thumb," James Houlihan said.
'The way you learn this business
is by doing it.
'This is not a top-down organi-
Tuesday. The
pound rose to
$1.4752 from
"
1,200
Vol. (in mil.)
Pvs. Volume
Advanced
Declined
New Highs
New Lows
later on.
from $1.3967
2,400
... 900 ..·'....·....··:··
registrations of Verizon names
was intended to confuse Internet
users who wanted to do business
online with Verizon. The judge calculated a damage award based on
$50,000 for each online name, according to Verizon.
Verizon said the case is the
fourth cybersquatting court victory thaUt has won as it intensifies
efforts to protect its brand name
and trademarks.
Representatives of OnlineNIC
could not be reached for comment.
For updated stock quotes, send text
message with STOCKTICKER (e.g. MSFT) or
FUNDTICKER (e.g. AGTHX) to 44636 (4INFO).
............. ,." ....
920
1,500 " 840 ...... 10DAYS ....
....600 .. ,
their father's comer office. Both
women said they like the flexibility and freedom that the real estate
business affords, qualities they
saywill become more OOportant if
they think about having families
&M'arkets
MOD
1,800 "
family business was never dis-
of business careers, and there ap-
it signed a lease with Fordham
•
that as children they grew up not
knowing what deeds or mort-
peared to be no barriers on the
money that a salesman could
make. He became a partner in
1987.
His father's unwillingness to
cations last year; earlier this year
DOW
8,468.48
pitched for the college baseball
team, James J, Houlihan said the
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Crude fell to just
above $35 a
barrel as stockpiles of unused
gasoline hinted
at falling energy
demand. Gold
for February delivery inched
higher, settling
at $848 an
ounce. Silver
prices slipped.
Interestral••
FED
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FUELS
Crude Oil (bbl)
Ethanol (gal)
Heating Oil (gal)
Natural Gas (mm btu)
Unleaded Gas (gal)
METALS
Aluminum (lb)
Copper (lb)
Gold (oz)
Platinum (az)
Silver (azl
3-month. T-bill
6-month T-bill
1-yearT-nale
2-yearT-nale
5-year T-note
1O-year T-nole
3D-year T-bond
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0.71
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859.40
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0.88
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• 00
5206
.,
products company v;
ucts include canning
makers and playing co
only company based i
Hudson Valley on tl
rankings were compi
assistance of an advisl
14 academics, consull
dustry leaders.
'This honor is truly
to us all as it represer.
cation and hard work
than 25,000 employee,
world who have each 11
Jarden a'continued su
consumer products
Chief Executive Offic,
Franklin said in a W1
ment.
Pernod Ricard ad
responsible drink
Pernod Ricard U:
chase-based produce
and wine brands, said
out a series of online
sages as part of a cam
courage responsible
The campaign highligJ
excuses used to justi
driving, underage c{
and binge drinking.
videos are posted at ~
responsibility.org.
Hudson Valley Bani
for Milford, Conn.
Hudson ValleyBani<
said it has received ap
the Office ofthe Compl
Currency to open a br<
ford, Conn. The branch
to open in the second,
bank operates 30 b
Westchester, Rockland
Manhattan, Queens, B,
Fairfield County, Conn
Reach Jay Loomis
atjloomis@lohud.com
or 914-694-5041.
Late shOI
aren't ell!
to save se
SHOPPERS, fror
industryhad relied on
fore and after Christl
save the season. But
period was virtually I
EUROPE/AFRICAIMlooLE EAST
Israeli Shekel
3.6675 +.0361 +.93% 3,3852
Norwegian Krone
7.1144 -,0119 -.17% 5.1151
South African Rand
9.7398 +.0673 +.69% 8.0257
Swedish Krona
7.9681 -.0640 -.80% 6.0459
Swiss Franc
1.0740 -.0131 -1.22% 1.0406
52-WK RANGE CLOSE
o 52HI CLOSE
52Lo
6.71
13,3175
Mexican Peso
TREASURIES
PRIME
RATE
3.25
YEST
5.00
6 MOAGO
7.25
TICKER
MS
CLOSE
USD per British Pound 1.4752
Canadian Dollar
1.2156
USO per Euro
1.3999
Japanese Yen
90,39
ential companies. Th,
company's inclusion c
allist was featured il
zine's Dec. 22 print ea
a slide show on the Bu
Web site. Jarden, 0
..
11
OIV
1.08
the Thanksgiving we
ed, and stores are gn
the most severe retre
consumer spending ir
Facing pressure fn
and consumers who a
ing, Circuit City Stores
bankruptcy protection
It plans to keep opera'
retailer KB Toys, wh
bankruptcy protection
month, has already be
date all ofits stores a
down.
Merchants despera
shoppers started deer
ing holiday goods as ,
hit stores starting in
But except for a shOI
on the day after Th
Americans have rem
fisted.
Stores are expectet
18.8 percent decline
quarter profits, mark
enth consecutive peri
declines, according
Perkins, president ,
company RetaiIMetric
Feds pn