BUSINESS

Photo by Glenn Triest

Bernard
Glieberman's
office is filled
with model cars
and football
paraphernalia.

Builder of the Year

First he was satisfied collecting vintage cars.
Now builder Bernard Glieberman is buying into
the game of football.

AARON HALABE

Special to The Jewish News

B

ernard Glieberman is
throwing deep and
scoring big in the bus-
iness of home building
and professional foot-
ball. Mr. Glieberman, who
recently purchased the Ot-
tawa Rough Riders football
team, was named the 1991
Builder of the Year by the
Builders Association of
Southeastern Michigan
(BASM).
Mr. Glieberman says he has
been able to overcome a slug-
gish economy by working
with top people and by
building "a high quality pro-
duct on a new lot, at a fair
price." In both businesses, he
follows a Darwinian-sounding
theory: "When a market is

hot, everything sells. When
the market is slow, only the
best products survive." That
same philosophy applies to
his latest business venture as
new owner of the Ottawa
Rough Riders football team.
Mr. Glieberman bought the
Canadian Football League
(CLF) franchise last year for
$3 million and is now
assembling a "world class
staff" of players and team
administrators.
Mr. Glieberman says his
business savvy comes from 20
years as a home builder. He
estimates he has constructed
8,000 residential units since
1971. Last year, he says, his
firm Crosswinds Com-
munities sold 200 homes and
condos — 52 in the fourth
quarter valued at $5 million.
Building industry analysts
say Mr. Glieberman's success

is due to his expertise in con-
structing, financing and
marketing. "He has grown up
in the building business,"
says Irvin Yackness, BASM
executive vice president and
general counsel. "He has
been totally immersed in
building, and it gives him a
hands-on knowledge of all
aspects of the business — he's
a hands-on entrepreneur."
Mr. Glieberman, 52, says
that by building units with
unusual features such as
wooden roofs, he sells his
homes quickly. This quick
turnover, he says, allows him
to maintain an in-house
capital fund used for land
development and construc-
tion costs.
"We don't have to wait for a
bank to give us a construction
loan on spec houses, we don't
have to pay any interest and

we save the cost of maybe two
people to process loan paper-
work," Mr. Glieberman adds.
In addition to completed
projects such as Greenpointe
in West Bloomfield and
Greenpointe at Copper Creek
in Farmington Hills, Mr.
Glieberman is building 333
detached condominium
homes in Westland called the
Millpointe development. The
homes in this new sub-
division are priced between
$76,000 and $92,000.
"That (Millpointe project)
was an accomplishment .. .
the subdivision has sold very
rapidly when everybody else
was dying, because of the con-
cept that it was affordable,"
Mr. Glieberman says.
A similar project is under
way in Royal Oak Township,
where he was offered scat-
tered lots for $1. He intends

to build 135 homes in an ef-
fort to revitalize the area.
Other projects are slated for
Northville and Ypsilanti
township, where he recently
purchased land.
Mr. Glieberman's eyes light
up like a scoreboard when he
talks about his purchase of
the Ottawa Rough Riders.
"There comes a time in
your life that if you're really
a person who loves to do
business, you sometimes will
get into a business that
maybe won't make you as
much money percentage-wise
as your main business, but it
provides a lot of fun. And
that's the football team."
Initially, the new venture
will not be all fun and games.
Mr. Glieberman inherits a
team that, like the CFL itself,
is struggling with financial
and administrative problems.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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