In brief
Sol Goldman (1917–1987) was an American real estate investor and philanthropist renowned for building one of New York City's largest private real estate empires through Solil Management, the investment firm he founded in partnership with Alex DiLorenzo Jr. Born in Brooklyn as the son of a grocer, Goldman left Brooklyn College in 1935 to manage his family's shop before entering real estate in the 1950s by purchasing foreclosed properties, including the iconic Chrysler Building in 1960—a holding he lost during the 1970s market crash but recovered from by emphasizing cash purchases and long-term retention. By the mid-1980s, his portfolio encompassed nearly 600 properties valued in the hundreds of millions, making him New York City's largest private landlord at the time of his death on October 18, 1987, from a stroke. A private figure despite his wealth—estimated at $450 million in 1985—Goldman married Lillian Schuman, with whom he had four children, and his legacy endures through the family's management of the portfolio, now comprising over 400 properties and valued at billions with a family net worth of $13.2 billion as of 2025, despite ongoing disputes among heirs, and the Sol Goldman Charitable Trust, established by his estate in 1988 to fund initiatives in health, education, the arts, the environment, and Jewish causes, including major support for pancreatic cancer research at Johns Hopkins University.
Sol Goldman was born Usher Selig Goldman on September 2, 1917, in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish immigrant parents Charles Goldman and Fannie Berson. Charles, born in 1890 in Mezherichi, Ostroh, Rivne, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire), had immigrated to the United States, where he owned and operated a modest grocery store in Brooklyn, providing the family with a working-class livelihood. Fannie, born in 1892, managed the household alongside her husband's business endeavors in the tight-knit immigrant community.
Sol Goldman married Lillian Schuman in 1941, when she was 19 years old and he was 23; the couple, both from Jewish families in New York, formed a partnership that lasted over four decades despite a separation in 1983. Lillian played a key role in encouraging Sol to leave his family's grocery business in Brooklyn and pursue real estate full-time, providing early support for his entrepreneurial shift. Their marriage produced four children: Allan H. Goldman, born in 1943; Diane Goldman Kemper; Amy P. Goldman Fowler; and Jane Goldman, born around 1956.
