Profiling A Builder:
`Buzz' Silverman
ALAN ABRAMS SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
ilb-ert "Buzz" Silverman Jr., a 41-
year-old real estate development
mogul, is considered the wun-
derkind of the southeastern Michi-
gan home building industry.
Buzz is the third generation of his fam-
ily to head the business of which he today
is president and chief executive officer.
His office is in the corporate headquar-
ters of the Silverman Companies on
Northwestern Highway in Farmington
Hills.
And he is enthusiastic about the busi-
ness climate for the home building in-
dustry in Michigan. Figures released
earlier this year by the Building Indus-
try Association of Southeastern Michigan
(BIA), show that 1996 was the best year
since the boom of the 1970s for single-fam-
ily home permits in the region.
According to the BIA, total single-fam-
ily permits issued for 1996 were 16,614,
an increase of 2.5 percent from 1995.
And, said BIA president Scott Jacob-
son, "1997 permits may well reach
17,000."
The most popular areas for construc-
tion in 1996 were Canton, Chesterfield,
Macomb, Shelby and West Bloomfield
townships, and Novi, said Mr. Jacobson,
president of S.R. Jacobson Development
Corp. in Bingham Farms, one of the
state's 15 largest builders.
Mr. Silverman, who was succeeded as
G
president of the BIA by Mr. Jacobson in
January, calls Michigan "the No. 1 hot-
spot being talked about nationally in res-
idential building development."
The cause is 90,000 new jobs in south-
eastern Michigan that were added in
1996. Combine that with low interest
rates, the 1994 Proposal A rollback of real
estate taxes by as much as 30 percent,
high consumer confidence, and continued
growth and strength of the automotive
sector, and you have the best possible
recipe for success in the housing indus-
try, said Mr. Silverman.
"I had a very clear picture of that when
I got back in mid-January from the na-
tional convention of the NAHB (Nation-
al Association of Home Builders) in
Houston," said Mr. Silverman, who is a
national director of the NAHB, and a
board member of the Michigan Associa-
tion of Homebuilders.
"I was approached by the top national
publicly-held building companies in our
industry, who were asking how they could
get into the Michigan market. Our firm
is top 100 in the country, but these firms
are top 10. They do 10,000 housing units
a year, and they are approaching us," said
Mr. Silverman.
Operating under the corporate um-
brella of the Silverman Companies since
the 1994 split of the family's original
Holtzman and Silverman Co., Mr. Sil-
THE DETROI T J EWIS H NEWS
PHOTOS BY DANIEL LIPPITT
SILVERMAN BUILDING COMPANIES GROWTH
verman's mini-empire includes Silverman
Building Co., Silverman Development Co.,
Silverman Construction
Co., Silverman
Homes, Inc., Village Green ealty, Inc.,
and Lake Village Apartments, Inc.,
among others.
Mr. Silverman's family has been active
in real estate development, construction
and management since the company was
founded in 1919 by Buzz Silverman's
grandfather, Nathan, and his brother-in-
law, Joseph Holtzman.
"Our ranking in the state for 1996 is
No. 2 in total residential building permit
volume," said Mr. Silverman.
The Bernard Glieberman Companies
of Novi hold first place on the list of the
100 largest builders in the eight combined
counties of Wayne, Oakland, Macomb,
Washtenaw, Livingston, Genesee, Lapeer
and St. Clair. Their total number of per-
mits for the area in 1996 was 772, with
permit value of $45,186,000. The tally in-
cludes rentals.
Silverman Construction Co. is listed
second with 686 permits.
"But that's just one factor," said Mr. Sil-
verman. "Our gross dollar volume
[$48,675,000] ranks us as either No. 1 or
No. 2 in the state."
That amount is dwarfed by third place
Pulte Homes, which with only 571 per-
mits has a permit value of $77,910,000.
The Silverman Companies are pri-
vately held, so they do not release their
earnings. However, according to the
March 1997 Builder magazine, the Sil-
verman development group earns about
$25 million a year, the multifamily con-
struction group also does about $25 mil-
lion annually, and the Silverman Building
Co., the single-family business, is ap-
proaching $60 million a year.
According to building industry esti-
mates, the Silverman Companies have
grown at a rate of 30 percent per year for
the past three years.
But it wasn't always that way, espe-
cially when Buzz came to work for his fa-
ther in 1980. "At that time, we were in a
deep recession," said Mr. Silverman.
"Bumper stickers used to read, Will the
last person out turn off the lights?' Inter-
est rates were about 18 percent, and I
think our company went a whole year
without selling a single house. We stayed
busy by being general contractors and do-
ing public housing, fee-based housing con-
struction."
Today, it is a different picture. 'We do
single-family starter homes, custom
homes, luxury multi-family rentals, as
well as a significant amount of land de-
velopment," said Mr. Silverman. 'We've
built nursing homes, senior citizen hous-
ing, pretty much the whole spectrum of
residential opportunities.
'We're a residential specialty firm.
We're not involved in any commercial de-
velopment at this point. Our family has
been in this for 78 years, and we've
amassed a fair amount of knowledge. We
stay with what we know."
During Grandfather Nathan's era, the
company built about 500 homes a year,
making Silverman one of the largest
homebuilders in Michigan. Ironically, for
a Jewish-owned company, their market
was fueled by Henry Ford's success with
the assembly line and the housing needs
of workers moving to Detroit.
Jobs created that success story. And
jobs are what's creating the Silverman
success story today.
However, Mr. Silverman said his staff
is relatively small — 80-100 people — con-
sidering their volume. But quality and
customer satisfaction are keys.
'e have been very fortunate to have
04
Butz Silverman worts from his Farmington Hills office.