Leasing agent makes space stand out in crowded market.

Smart leasing agents known that they'll rarely see a space that's waiting for just the right tenant. If you want to rent space, particularly in a tough market like New York City, you've generally got to make the prospect fall in love with it.

In the past couple of years, the difference between the agent who can do that, and the one who can't, has come to be known around 437 Madison Avenue as the "Houley Factor."

That's Houley as in Elizabeth Houley, Managing Director of The Galbreath Company, whose uptown offices are headquartered at the 40-story Madison Avenue tower. Regarded by many as one of the sharpest leasing agents in the Big Apple, Houley is perhaps rest associated today for two outstanding recent achievements - helping to bring 850 Third Avenue from 18 percent to 100 percent occupancy in 14 months, and keeping Heron Tower, at 70 East 55th Street, nearly fully leased since taking it on in 1993.

"The Houley Factor is an unquantifiable," says Bruce Mosler, president of Galbreath's Northeast Region. "The only way to sum it up is, 'Show the building the way Houley shows it.'"

Elizabeth Houley herself claims that her secret is pretty simple: It's just a mixture of homework and personality - as well as always being prepared.

"It's essential to know the building inside and out," she says. "What sets me apart is that knowledge, together with my ability to point out the good things about the building. That's just a matter of sitting down with engineers for hours and hours and asking as many questions as you can. You really have to grill everyone."

It's also a matter of being properly prepared to do the best possible job - a principle she takes very seriously.

"When you're showing a building, whenever a question is asked, you should have the information ready, whether it has to do with window spacing, column size, floor loads, power capacity, HVAC or whatever," Houley says. "The prospect may never ask for that information, but you've got to have it available."

Another attribute that sets her apart, Houley believes, is that she makes it a point to personally be at every space tour.

"Many agents don't bother with this," she notes. "They might just have a guard show you the building. But I have to be there because I'm the one who can set the building apart, make it unique and memorable. That's what I do; that's what a leasing agent is paid for. Otherwise, the prospect may not remember that building from the five other properties he or she has seen that day."

Helping to make a building's best qualities come alive is really what the "Houley Factor" is. She says that lots of buildings are no better or worse than the one's they're competing with, so "you really have to be there to point out their positive attributes. It may seem to be time-consuming, but being on every tour ultimately saves you time in the long run, since a prospect isn't popping in and out of the building, seeing a space that's wrong for his or her needs, and then coming back to you later with questions."

Of course, style is just as integral apart of the "Houley Factor" as substance. A flexible personality is as important as product knowledge, if not more so, Houley insists.

"If the prospect is very buttoned-down and business-like and wants to get right to the point, I'll give him the information he needs and keep him on his schedule," she says. "Other prospects are more social. I adjust to my client's needs. I get all the facts across in a comfortable and easy way.

Houley, who is 33, moved to New York at age 19 following an impressive career as a nationally-ranked competitive horse-show jumper. She fell into real estate by working with two of the brightest developers in town - Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager - in the 1980's.

"I became Steve Rubell's assistant at a time when they were turning the rather run-down Executive Hotel into Morgan's, which has remained a beautiful hotel," she recalls. "I learned as much as I could about the real estate business in between answering phones and making photo copies."

Her next real estate challenge was as an agent for Newmark in 1986. "Things were going just fine for the first couple of months, and then the market simply cratered. No deals were happening at all," Houley recalls. "I moonlighted at various jobs that first year."

In 1988, Houley went to work for The Brodsky Organization - "a six-month residency," she calls it - during which she helped lease out South Park Tower.

"It was then," she says, "that Philip Restifo, then at Galbreath, asked me to handle his latest big project, the Swiss Bank Tower at 10 East 50th Street. This was a new construction, possibly the finest, most modern office building in the city at that time, and I learned that project inside and out everything about what made it special and would allow it to command very high prices in a down cycle."

"We had to focus in on that small percentage of tenants who would pay rents in the $50s and $60s in 1991 and '92. The key was to make them understand that they'd be getting value for their money," she says.

Since that project, Houley has been proudest of her work on Heron Tower and 850 Third Avenue.

"We filled up 850 Third in just over a year, following a full upgrade of the property including most of the mechanical systems, elevators, HVAC, and so on," she noted. "Right now, my top-priority project is 757 Third Avenue, where we have to lease about 100,000 square feet."

While she has represented quite a few tenants, including Banca della Svizzera Iraliana, Sunrise Financial, among others, she says her first love is representing owners. What does she want to do next?

"Any huge project with vacant space as far as the eye can see. Every building has something that makes it special," she says. Particularly if its fortunate enough to have the "Houley Factor" on its side.