Toll Brothers Acquires Detroit’s Silverman Companies

Huntingdon Valley, PA, January 14, 1999 – Toll Brothers, Inc. (NYSE:TOL), -- Toll Brothers, Inc., the nation’s leading builder of luxury homes, today announced that it has reached agreement to acquire the Silverman Companies and expects to complete the transaction in its second quarter. The Silverman Companies, which develops new homes and luxury apartments, was the number #1 builder, ranked by residential building permits, in the Detroit area in 1997, the most recent year for which data is available.

With this acquisition, Toll Brothers gains control of approximately 2,400 home sites and interests in land for 1,600 apartments. The Silverman Companies will also become the development arm for communities totaling over 1,100 additional home sites Toll Brothers already owns or controls in the affluent suburbs of Detroit. These include Northville Hills Country Club, a 340-home Arnold Palmer Golf Course country club community slated to open this summer, Harvest Lake, an 800-home community in Oakland County and Cheltenham Estates, a 28 home community currently open for sale. Detroit will become the hub for Toll Brothers’ Midwest operations, which also include Chicago and Columbus.

Sustaining a tradition dating back to 1919, Gilbert “Buzz” Silverman, CEO, represents the third generation of family-owned companies specializing in residential development. The family has built more than 25,000 multi-family apartments and 10,000 single-family residences over 80 years.

Robert I. Toll, chairman and chief executive officer of Toll Brothers, stated: “We are joining forces with an organization that we believe is the most successful and best managed private home builder in the Midwest. Buzz Silverman and his tremendous management team will enable us to jump start our operations in the metro Detroit area and spearhead further growth throughout the Midwest. Buzz Silverman will continue as President and CEO of the Silverman Companies and will become a key member of the Toll management team. This acquisition should be accretive immediately and is expected to have a meaningful positive impact on our 1999 and 2000 earnings.

“With Silverman’s outstanding reputation and the 5,200 home and apartment sites included in our venture, we will be a major force in the Detroit move-up, empty nester and apartment markets. It is also expected that Silverman’s expertise in luxury apartment development will add considerably to the holdings of Toll Brothers Realty Trust, our new commercial property entity.”