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.