Kevork S. Hovnanian, who came to the United States from Iraq and
started a construction company that became one of the nation’s largest
home builders, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 86 and lived in
Rumson, N.J.
Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times
Kevork S. Hovnanian
Hovnanian Enterprises Inc.
of Red Bank, N.J., announced his death on its Web site but did not
disclose the cause. He founded a building company, with his three
brothers in 1959.
Last year, Hovnanian, a publicly traded
company that operates in 18 states, was the sixth-largest builder of
homes and residences in the country, based on revenue. Affected by the
nationwide housing downturn, it reported a net loss of $1.1 billion for
the year that ended in October 2008.
Mr. Hovnanian was among the
developers who transformed the shape of suburbia in the 1970s and 1980s
by building inexpensive town houses and condominiums for young families
who were first-time buyers.
Even among competitors, he gained
a reputation as a builder of bare-bones homes who kept prices low. In
the early 1980s, for example, the typical Hovnanian condominium
residence was a two-bedroom, two-bathroom dwelling that cost about
$30,000. In his developments, Mr. Hovnanian kept prices down by
omitting the amenities, like swimming pools and community buildings,
that other builders used to attract buyers.
“There are limited
recreation facilities going in because people have little time for
socialization,” Mr. Hovnanian told The New York Times in 1983,
explaining his philosophy.
By 1989, his company had sold more
than 30,000 condominiums and other residences in states stretching from
New Hampshire to Florida. The projects were so popular that they
sometimes sold out over a weekend. Mr. Hovnanian also operated a
finance company that made loans to buyers, who sometimes bought more
than one residence, including some as investments.
Since then,
the company has built more than 200,000 other homes. And in recent
years, it has expanded its portfolio to include the construction of
medium-price homes, luxury homes and retirement communities with
recreational facilities.
Mr. Hovnanian, who was of Armenian
descent, fled Iraq with his brothers and other family members in the
late 1950s as a result of political upheaval there. In 1986, he
fulfilled a promise he had made to himself during his escape by
building an Armenian Apostolic church in Long Branch, N.J.
He
also contributed money to help build medical facilities in the New York
area, including the K. Hovnanian Children’s Hospital at Jersey Shore
University Medical Center in Neptune, N.J.
Mr. Hovnanian and his
three brothers, Hirair, Jirair and Vahak, put in $1,000 each, plus a
borrowed $20,000, to start the company, Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. said
in a news release on its 50th anniversary. The other brothers left the
business in 1969. Hirair and Vahak, both of Middletown, N.J., survive.
In
1988, his son, Ara K. Hovnanian, succeeded him as president of
Hovnanian Enterprises, replacing his father as its chief executive in
1997. The elder Mr. Hovnanian remained chairman of the company’s board
until his death. Besides his son, who lives in New York, he is survived
by his wife, Sirwart; four daughters, Sossie Najarian, Esto Barry and
Lucy Kalian, all of Rumson, N.J., and Nadia Rodriguez, of Boston; and
13 grandchildren.
