For the Second Year in a Row... you can still find his mother there. "It (Wells Cargo) got really big, and about a year later, my dad took me to lunch and asked me how much business we were doing. I told him we were doing really good, that we were going to do $3 million in business that year. "And he said, 'Let me tell you what I did last year.' So he told me some numbers, and he said, `As a matter of fact, I'd like to make you an offer to come into the business.' "I had been waiting for an of- fer to go into the real estate busi- ness ever since I was 5 years old, and my grandfather had me out there picking up nails. I always wanted to be in real estate. I al- ways liked it, it was the natural thing I wanted to do," said the Mr. Silverman. "I always liked construction. I've always liked land," he said. "I had the business background that I'd gotten at Berkeley, and I had some knowledge of busi- ness experience at my mom's store, and I'd waited tables when I worked at a restaurant in col- lege. So I had some restaurant experience, retail experience, and college experience, and I came into the company." Mr. Silverman also had some of the greatest teachers in the real estate development world. "My father has a tremendous real estate acumen," said Mr. Sil- verman. "And then I worked for A. Alfred Taubman and Max Fisher. When I was 26, I was re- porting to Max and Al and Miles Jaffe when, along with Richard Kughn and others, we built Riverfront Apartments in down- town Detroit. It was just incred- ible learning from those guys. "They really are very into the business, which was delightful to me, because I'm really into it too. So they'd sit after meetings and talk with me for a long time about how to approach things this way or the other way. I got to see how great real estate cor- porations occur, and their inner workings," said Mr. Silverman. For a number of years, Buzz was a partner of Toby Holtzman and his sons, Matthew and Jonathan. "Over the years we went our separate ways, al- though I'm still involved as a board member of Village Green Management Co., which is a company Jonathan works at. I'm involved in that company with my father and David Hermelin, who founded it in 1962. That's what got us in the apartment business." Jonathan Holtzman is also chairman of Village Green Apart- ments, developers of Regents Park of Troy, near Big Beaver and Crooks roads. The senior Mr. Silverman is SILVERMAN page 68 A Gesture Of Helpfulness Michigan's #1 Standards for Excellence Dealer RINKE CADILLAC! • Additional S500 Lease Renewal Incentive for current Cadillac Smart Leasers 40111111111 1 , 1 Stk1 V82I955 Chrome wheels, leather lumbar pkg., heated seats, safety & security pkg. 12 Month MARTIZASE $1900 down 499 Perfect Timing for the Introduction of the All New 1998 Seville V 1997 Sedan DeVille Stk# V260107 Leather seats, chrome wheels, leather interior. S ome employees of the Silverman Companies have been with the firm through all three generations of Silvermans. A num- S ber, like Benesch Thatch, are Holocaust survivors that Grand- father Nathan helped come to the United States after World War H. "When we arrived in Detroit in December 1949," said Mr. Thatch, "I mean the whole family -- myself, my wife, two children and a mother-in-law — we found Nathan and his wife Esther waiting for us. "The fact that it was the middle of winter, and they were wait- ing for us, and taking us to their home, was really something to us. "You have to realize what that meant to a person who came from Europe at that time, where a Jewish family was not worth a thing except for killing. To actually find people that you don't know, and taking you into their home ... "Nathan and Esther arranged for housing for us in an apart- ment building owned by Louis Berry," Mr. Thatch said. "Mr. Berry told me not to worry about the rent, because he owned the place, and we could stay there as long as we wanted to. "The warmth of the people was very impressive to a family that had come to a new place, to a strange world, strange language and strange people, and found such a warm reception." Within a few weeks, Gilbert Silverman, Sr., asked Mr. Thatch, who had been a lawyer in pre-war Kounos, Lithuania, if he would like to work for the Holtzman and Silverman Company. "Mr. Silverman asked me if I wanted to learn the building trade. `But I'm not a builder,' I told him. 'How are you going to use me?' And Mr. Silverman said, 'If I'm a builder, you're going to be a builder."' Now in his 48th year with the Silverman Companies, Mr. Thatch was at the hospital when Buzz Silverman was born. He is now di- rector of construction, of counsel. ❑ 1997 Seville SLS Month E Additional $500 Lease Renewal Incentive for current Cadillac Smart 1.1!,14.6 _ $499 '1900 down SMARTLEASE PLUS One Single Payment $12,995 1997 Catera Additional $500 Lease Renewal Incentive for current Cadillac Smart Leasecs St1c# VI05960 Leather seats, heated seats, memory seats, theft deterrent system & cast . aluminum wheels. Month 36 MARTLEASE $1900 down $369 SMARTLEASE PLUS One Single Payment $13,593 GMAC Smartlease 36 months, 1st pymt., ref. sec. dep. of $600 or less, down pyme. as shown above, new plates or transfer fee, admin- istration fee due on delivery. State & Lux. tax additional. Mileage limitation of 36,000 miles. 150/mile excess charge over limitation. Lessee has option to purchase at lease end for pre determained price. To get total pymt., multiply pymt. by no. of months. R INKE CADILLAC A General fotors Farnify—. 1917 1-696 AT VAN DYKE 758-1800 If traveling west on 1-696, exit Hoover, follow Service Drive to RINKE. If traveling east on 1-696, exit Van Dyke; take to second bridge past Van Dyke over expressway to RINKE. MASTER DEALER DEDKATED EXCELLENCE: