My dad began buying properties when he was 16 - now I’m the only female billionaire in real estate, worth $2.1billion

JANE Goldman is the only female billionaire to lead a real estate firm, with over 400 New York City properties under her belt.

She inherited the empire from her father, Sol Goldman, who got into the business aged just 16.

BROOKLYN BEGINNINGS

Sol was born in 1917 to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York.

As a teenager, he worked in his father’s grocery store before briefly attending Brooklyn College.

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But during the Great Depression, Sol saw an opportunity in real estate, despite having no prior experience in this field.

At just 16, he borrowed money from his neighbors and began buying up foreclosed properties.

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It was in the 1950s and 1960s that business began booming for Sol and his business partner, Alex DiLorenzo.

At their peak, Sol and Alex’s portfolio consisted of nearly 1,900 properties, including the famous Chrysler building.

But the 1973-1974 crash spelled trouble for many real estate developers, and Sol was no exception.

He lost the Chrysler building due to foreclosure, and then, in 1975, Alex died.

But Sol pressed on with his company, which in 1979 he named Solil - a combination of his name and his wife’s name, Lil.

Sol died in 1987 with the largest real estate portfolio in New York, worth over $1billion.

FAMILY FEUD

He and Lil had split up by the time Sol died, and his estranged wife and his four children had a bitter court battle over the real estate empire he left behind.

Five years later, Lil emerged with 33 percent of the estate, as she had agreed with Sol before his death. 

But when Lil died in 2002, her stake was divided equally among the four children  - Allan, Diane, Amy, and Jane.

The Goldmans are a private family, but in her last public interview in 2008, Jane said to the real estate magazine The Real Deal: “I think we all have regrets about that period. 

“It’s a blip on the whole picture of who my father was and the things he accomplished.”

SOLIL TODAY

All three of Sol’s surviving children are still involved in the business to some extent.

The youngest daughter, Jane, is the head of Solil Management.

Her role makes her the only female billionaire at the helm of a real estate firm, and her individual net worth is estimated to be $2.1billion by Forbes.

The Solil portfolio includes over 400 New York properties and a 17 percent stake in the World Trade Center developments.

Amy and Diane are both senior advisors, while Allan passed away in 2022.

Jane and Allan’s sons now work for Solil and are poised to take over one day, maintaining the Goldman family’s grip on New York for decades to come.

“We believe in the long-term strength of the New York City real estate market,” Allan’s son Steven Gurney-Goldman told Forbes.

“[We] think that if we manage our holdings patiently without taking on excess risk and leverage, we should be able to weather many of the challenges that we are sure to encounter as we grow with the company.”

The Goldmans aren’t the only American family with massive wealth for future generations to inherit.

The Busch family is worth $18billion after their great-great-grandfather invented Budweiser in 1876.

But see why Bill Gates is leaving only a "minuscule portion" of $113billion fortune to his children.