Daily News from New York, New York • 42

Sol Goldman N7 2 I '-f. X- JT I 1 list A Sol Goldman built a real estate empire. as the Manhattan real estate market scaled new heights. Here he was once again wheeling and dealing, expanding and reinvesting. He bought heavily into the companies that own Alexander's and Mays department stores, mainly in a bid for the valuable Manhattan land that those stores occupied.

Alex DiLorenzo Jr. died, never able to shake rumors that he or both he and his partner had some connection to the mob. Years later Alex DiLorenzo 3d took note of those rumors, saying his father had made a mistake going to the funeral of mobster Albert Anastasia. That was the extent, he said, of any involvement with the mob. As for Sol Goldman, he may rue the day he didn't take his mother's advice and stay with the grocery in Brooklyn.

rnvpn 0 On) By OWEN MORITZ Urban Attain Editor Maybe Sol Goldman should have listened to his mama and never left the family grocery store. If he had he wouldn't be in such grave trouble today. Then again, all things considered, Sol Goldman wouldn't have become one of the great names in American real estate, the shadowy figure who came out of Brooklyn to amass 500, maybe 600, properties no one really knows how many for sure, perhaps not even Sol. At one point Sol Goldman's empire was worth $1 billion, give or take a tenement or two. When he was riding high about a decade ago Sol Goldman was principal owner of the 77-story Chrysler Building, and his office was the sumptuous suite that the great auto tycoon Walter Chrysler had used.

EVERYWHERE Sol looked he could see brick-and-mortar evidence of the empire assembled by himself and his publicity-shy partner, Alex DiLorenzo Jr. There was the land Goldman-DiLorenzo owned under the Plaza, St. Moritz and St. Regis hotels. In Times Square and along Eighth Ave.

Gold-man-DiLorenzo was the biggest property owner. Along the way Goldman survived innuendoes that the empire was funded by the underworld and accusations that the partners helped run down Times Square by renting out buildings to prostitutes and porn establish ments. Over the years Goldman has been the target of lawsuits charging tenant, harassment. Always Sol escaped unscathed. Til AT IS, until now.

At 67, wheelchair-bound and on dialysis because of failed kidneys, Goldman was wheeled into a police station to be fingerprinted and to hear an I indictment for perjury. He could get up to seven years if convicted. The case is strange, and the law community is trying to sort out the consequences. It involves illegal demolition i of four vacant buildings, in- eluding the Lenox, a single- room-occupancy hotel on 44th St. between Sixth and Seventh Aves.

The buildings were owned i by Goldman. Last year he sold them to reclusive real estate operator Harry Mack-lowe. Macklowe apparently had not takentitle on Jan. 9 when a demolition erew lum-bered down W. 44th St.

and iw id buildings. That is the perjury charge Goldman faces. "This is the most bizarre case I have ever seen," said Raoul Felder, Goldman's lawyer. "New York is going to be the laughingstock of the country with this action." The irony is that after 50 years in real estate Goldman has been indicted for the actions of another real estate operator. Maybe mama knew something back in 1935.

Sol was beginning his first year at Brooklyn College when he was asked to run the family grocery store. His father was ailing. GOLDMAN RAN the store ably and soon hankered for bigger things. Mama urged him to stay. "Never leave the store," Goldman later quoted his mother as saying.

"It's a gold mine." Goldman plunged into Brooklyn real estate, parlaying the cash flew from one investment as the down payment for the next property. He linked up with a neighbor, Alex DiLorenzo whose father was in the mortgage business. In 1955 Goldman said to his partner: "Let's move to Manhattan." In 1960 they bought the Chrylser Building from William Zeckendorf whose fortune and empire were fading quickly. In time, the Chrysler Building alone would produce a $1.5 million annual profit. Week after week in the 1960s and early '70s it seemed Goldman, the real estate effort.

Judy Laro Special the dark of night attempted to raze the buildings in order, according to District Attorney Robert Morgen-thau, to beat a moratorium effective in two days that would have barred SRO demolitions. THE DEMOLITION was illegal no one had filed for municipal permits and worse, dangerous. The water, gas and electricity had not been turned off. The demolition was halted by police but not before wreckers had made the buildings uninhabitable. Goldman denied he had ordered the demolition and accused Macklowe of ordering it.

Later Macklowe's organization did admit that it had. But a grand jury did not find criminal intent on Macklowe's part. And, as it turned out, New York's reckless-en-dangerment statutes are too weak to carry through the prosecution promised by Mayor Koch in January. The result was that Macklowe escaped criminal indictment. His lawyers settled a civil suit with the Koch administration by agreeing to pay $2 million for a loss of SRO housing the money to be directed toward construction of new SRO housing.

SOL GOLDMAN wasn't so lucky. The grand jury did not believe his testimony that he had known nothing about Macklowe's plans or that he had not given Macklowe authority to tear down the Ik SpsGiml the Daily News in the A'was genius, and DiLorenzo, the lawyer, were buying some property or other, often with skimpy down payments. Goldman's credo was the oldest rule of real estate. Buy location. Soon Goldman and DiLorenzo held a real estate portfolio in the shape of a pyramid.

THEN IN 1975, as New York's real estate market crashed about the time the city itself hit the financial skids, Goldman and DiLorenzo saw their empire washing away. They defaulted on a number of properties, including the Chrysler Building. At one point they owed Con Edison $3.5 million. Recalling the collapse of his jerry-built pyramid, Goldman once reflected: "I wish I had been a bit less successful." A few years later Goldman caught his second wind sets record as she negotiates JIM HUGHES DAILY NEWS cones in 60-meter weave at Laro (right), sponsorea Dy Olympics held in Bronx yesterday. uereorai rarsy ana uisaDiea uames, won tnree goia meaaisjn ine.inreeyni irriv.i,v'',B made her eDgitte tor, nalicuhampIonsWps.fo.