Family Feud Rocks One of NYC’s Largest Real Estate Empires

For more than half a century, the Goldman family amassed one of New York City’s largest privately held real estate portfolios. At various points, the empire built by the late investor Sol Goldman included interests in the Chrysler Building, the St. Regis Hotel, Olympic Tower and hundreds of commercial and residential properties across Manhattan.

When Sol Goldman died in 1987, he left behind a real estate empire that, according to court filings, today remains worth billions of dollars and is controlled through a maze of trusts and limited liability companies few New Yorkers have ever heard of.

Nearly four decades later, those entities—and the fortune they control—are at the center of an extraordinary legal battle that has sprawled across New York Supreme Court, Surrogate’s Court and Delaware Chancery Court.

The lawsuits pit sister against sister, nephew against aunt and one branch of the Goldman family against another. Plaintiffs accuse family members of refusing to distribute assets more than two decades after the death of family matriarch Lillian Goldman in 2002, manipulating corporate governance and improperly consolidating control over the family’s real estate empire. Defendants deny those allegations, arguing that plaintiffs have misread the governing agreements and distorted the facts.

The dispute intensified after the death of Lillian’s son Allan Goldman in January 2022. His son, Steven Gurney-Goldman, became executor of Allan’s estate and soon joined his aunt Amy Goldman Fowler in challenging how the family’s companies and trusts were being managed. In 2023, they filed a sweeping lawsuit in New York Supreme Court, which later spawned several related proceedings in Surrogate’s Court.

”Lillian’s Estate and the Trust together had approximately $100 million in liquid assets that could easily be distributed to their beneficiaries,” Amy Goldman Fowler and Steven Gurney-Goldman wrote in a Surrogate’s Court petition filed in May 2025. “Yet, notwithstanding the passage of over 20 years since the Decedent’s death, Jane, Diane, and Louisa refused to distribute the assets of the Estate and the Trust.”

That allegation forms the backbone of a series of petitions filed in the spring of 2025 seeking to remove Jane Goldman and Diane Goldman Kemper as executors of Lillian Goldman’s estate.

In one petition filed May 28, 2025, Steven Gurney-Goldman asked the court to remove Diane Goldman Kemper, alleging that declining health had left her incapable of serving as a fiduciary. “Sadly,” the petition states, “Diane suffers from substantial health issues that have diminished her mental capacity to the point that she can no longer serve as co-executor of the Estate.”

The petition cites deposition testimony taken in 2024. During one deposition in a related Delaware case, Diane was asked whether she was serving as executor of anyone’s estate. “No,” she answered. Months later, during another deposition in December 2024, she was again asked whether she was serving as executor of her mother’s estate. “I’m not sure,” she stated in a deposition.

Steven argues those answers demonstrate that Diane “does not possess the qualifications required of a fiduciary and is unfit for the execution of the office.”

The petition further alleges that Jane Goldman took advantage of Diane’s declining condition to consolidate control over the family’s companies. “Jane has turned her sister into her proxy for decisions as co-executor and co-manager,” the filing alleges.

A separate petition, also filed in May 2025, broadens the allegations beyond Diane’s health and accuses Jane Goldman of using the estate itself to consolidate power. “This proceeding concerns Jane’s efforts to wrest control of the Goldman family real estate empire, to the exclusion of her family members,” Amy Goldman Fowler and Steven Gurney-Goldman wrote.

According to that filing, the dispute centers on three little-known companies—Plaza Circle Enterprises, Lighthouse Properties and Lighthouse Plaza—that collectively control roughly $1 billion worth of Manhattan real estate.

Although Lighthouse Plaza owns only a one-percent equity stake in Plaza Circle and Lighthouse Properties, plaintiffs argue it effectively controls both companies because it owns all of the voting interests.

That governance structure lies at the heart of another petition filed in June 2025, in which Amy and Steven asked Surrogate’s Court to compel specific performance of operating agreements governing those entities.

They argue agreements signed shortly before Lillian Goldman’s death created “put rights” allowing Lighthouse Plaza’s voting interests to be purchased and extinguished, making it possible to distribute whole properties to beneficiaries rather than fractional ownership interests. Distributing partial interests, the petition argues, would “result in a significant destruction of the value of the assets.”

Defendants dispute that interpretation, arguing plaintiffs have misread the operating agreements.

The litigation extends beyond estate administration. In New York Supreme Court, another branch of the case focuses on the valuation of Sol Goldman Investments, one of the family’s principal holding companies. Plaintiffs contend that an appraisal prepared by Newmark undervalued the company by hundreds of millions of dollars through discounts that violated the operating agreement. Defendants reject those allegations.

The legal battle remains active. In May 2026, the parties agreed to a schedule for summary judgment motions in Supreme Court. During a June 11 hearing before Justice Melissa Crane, the judge questioned both sides as attorneys debated whether portions of the case could be decided without a trial.

Questioning plaintiffs’ theory that Steven inherited management rights after Allan Goldman’s death, Crane remarked: “I don’t see how Steven would have any management rights at all.” Moments later, however, she also questioned whether the complex family dispute could realistically be resolved on summary judgment. “How on earth can I do this on summary judgment?”

Perhaps the most explosive allegation appears almost in passing in one petition. According to Amy Goldman Fowler’s filing, Jane Goldman’s daughter, Solina, allegedly told Amy that Jane had once said she “wanted to kill [Steven] or else hire a contract killer.”

The allegation appears in Amy’s petition as an account of a conversation and is supported by Amy’s contemporaneous notes. Jane Goldman has denied wrongdoing in the broader litigation, and no criminal allegations or charges related to that claim appear in the public court record.

More than 23 years after Lillian Goldman’s death, the estate remains unsettled, with proceedings continuing simultaneously in Surrogate’s Court and Supreme Court. Summary judgment briefing is scheduled to continue this summer, while the related estate proceedings remain pending.

Attorneys representing the parties did not return calls seeking further comment beyond the court filings.