If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to build a home that genuinely has to perform, not just look good on a listing sheet, this conversation with Michael Ziman is worth your time.
Michael grew up in North Caldwell, New Jersey, in a family where entrepreneurship was just part of the air you breathed. His father had his hands in manufacturing, car washes, restaurants, and eventually real estate on Long Beach Island, a narrow barrier island off the southern New Jersey coast where people go to get away from everything. Watching his dad subdivide a property, build two homes, and sell one planted a seed.
By the time Michael was at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business studying finance and accounting, that seed had already started growing into a business plan. He landed his first real estate deal in his junior year, and by graduation, he was already building.
“Growing up, I always loved creating things from nothing. I also really enjoy the economics of the deal.”
That was 24 years ago. Since then, Ziman Development has grown into one of the more respected luxury home builders on Long Beach Island, with over 200 homes completed and price points ranging from four to twelve million dollars today. But the numbers, while impressive, are not really the point of this conversation.
What Michael and host Michael Krisa dig into is the thinking behind how these homes get built. Long Beach Island is a beautiful place, and it is also a place where Mother Nature has no interest in being polite about it. Storm surge, salt air, rising flood plains, and events like Hurricane Sandy are not hypothetical here. They are the reality every builder on the island has to account for. Michael walks through how his team approaches this, from building on piles with foundations elevated eight to ten feet off the ground, to breakaway walls designed to let hydrostatic force pass through rather than fight it, to positioning mechanical rooms well above the 500-year storm level. There is a logic to all of it, and he explains it in plain language that actually makes sense.
“I learned you can’t fight Mother Nature. But I do sleep well at night, and I guess the reason is that I’m doing things in such a way that we’re prepared for whatever Mother Nature could throw at us.”
The sustainability thread running through the conversation is just as interesting. Around the time of COVID, Michael did some honest reflecting about what mattered to him personally, being outdoors, skiing, hiking, the beach, and asked himself whether his business was actually aligned with those values.
“I realized the commonality is being outside, being on this earth, and wanting to really be a good steward to the environment for my kids, for my future grandkids, future generations. It was really important to me to leave this planet in the same form or a better form than when we found it.”
That reflection led him into a serious study of Passive House principles, a European methodology that can cut a home’s greenhouse gas consumption by up to 90 percent through tighter building envelopes, thoughtful window placement, and heat exchange ventilation systems. He started sourcing materials with recycled content, looking at the carbon cost of shipping materials long distances, and generally trying to build homes that would not be a net negative on the environment they sit in.
“When I talk about sustainability, there’s kind of two fronts. Minimizing greenhouse gases, but also, because we are on a barrier island, if I’m able to keep water bottles and trash out of landfills and off the beaches by using materials with 85 percent recycled content, that’s a home run for me.”
Out of that same thinking came the One Tree Pledge, a tree planting initiative Michael started through his company. For every project, Ziman Development commits to planting a minimum of one tree per square foot built, or five thousand trees per project. To date, they have supported planting more than 250,000 trees. He partners with organizations like One Tree Planted and does the math on actual carbon offset through what he calls MyCarbonMath. It is not greenwashing. It is a guy who loves the outdoors trying to make sure the business he runs does not chip away at the thing he loves.
Michael and Michael Krisa also get into the business side of things, how Ziman Development is fully self-financed using a combination of their own capital and a regional bank credit line, how running eight to twelve builds simultaneously works in practice, and why Michael has landed on under-promising and over-delivering as a non-negotiable after one particular project that kept him up at night more than any budget problem ever did.
“95 to 99 percent of the issues that have kept me up at night are really when the client’s expectations and my abilities aren’t in alignment. So now I always pad the timeframe a little, because at this stage of my life, I want to exceed expectations versus creating unrealistic ones.”
There is also a genuinely good conversation about Michael’s father, who founded the company in 1998 and served as a mentor, sounding board, and investor as Michael built the business into what it is today. The moment Michael describes stepping fully into his own as a leader is understated but real, and worth listening to. He closes with the advice he is already giving his own two boys, aged 12 and 13.
“You really find fulfillment, joy, and happiness in life when you’re doing what you love to do. Life is just so much more beautiful and meaningful when you feel like you have purpose and passion. Waking up every day excited for whatever it is you’re doing, creating, building, expanding, evolving. That’s the recipe.”
You can find Michael and the team at zimandevelopment.com, on social media, or on Main Street in Harvey Cedars, New Jersey.
About Michael Ziman
Michael Ziman grew up in North Caldwell, New Jersey, and attended the University of Michigan Ross School of Business before entering the world of real estate development. Michael secured his first real estate deal in his junior year of college and went full-time with Ziman Development right after graduation. Ziman Development was originally founded by his father in 1998, allowing Michael to understand the ins and outs of a real estate development company before taking over the business. Post-grad, he worked on implementing his own business plan for Ziman Development.
After watching his dad build homes on Long Beach Island, Michael fell in love with designing and crafting stunning homes. He studied and perfected his father’s real estate formula, adding his own techniques. He knew that he wanted sustainability to be a core pillar of his business, so he created the One Tree Pledge to help mitigate the carbon footprint left by home development.
Ziman has overseen the creation of more than 200 homes and counting and has supported planting more than 250,000 trees. His homes have left the Long Beach Island community awestruck by their beauty and classic architecture. Michael’s mission is to continue creating homes that surpass customer expectations while incorporating sustainable practices wherever possible to create a home that stands the test of time.
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