Longtime developer Tony Goldman, who resurrected art deco hotels in South Beach and put Miamis Wynwood area on the cultural map, has died of heart failure after a battle with lung ailments. He was 68 years old.
He died Tuesday in New York, according to his publicist, Susan Brustman.
Goldman, the founder of Goldman Properties, became known during his four-decade real estate career for finding value in depressed urban areas and transforming such neighborhoods into destinations through redevelopment. He started the company in 1968 with one employee, developing brownstones in New York’s Upper West Side. The company in the 1970s bought and renovated 18 buildings in SoHo, according to a Goldman biography provided by Brustman.
Sensing a similar opportunity in South Beach, Goldman in 1985 acquired 18 properties there, including the Park Central hotel. The New York Times called Goldman “the granddaddy of South Beach” at the time.
