Tony Goldman, Real Estate Visionary, Dies at 68 Tony Goldman, whose investor's eye for spotting battered neighborhoods prime for rejuvenation led him to help revive SoHo in Manhattan in the 1970s and South Beach in Florida in the "80s, died on Tuesday in Manhattan. He was 68. The cause was heart failure, his wife, Janet Goldman, said. Mr. Goldman did not like to be called a developer. "Developers are knock "em down, build "em up guys," he told The New York Times in 2000. That's not me. Instead, he saw himself as a long-term investor in the revitalization of historic neighborhoods. In 1976, walking through the dilapidated manufacturing district south of Houston Street, once known as Hell's Hundred Acres, he was attracted by its imposing cast-iron architecture and realized that the vast loft spaces in the factories there could be appealing places to live. "I saw the architectural aura of the neighborhood," Mr. Goldman told Preservation, the magazine of the National Historical Trust, in 2010. The cast-iron district expressed a powerful sense of place that didn't exist, that doesn't exist, in many places in the world. But it was the historic fabric, first and foremost, that captivated my attention and interest. He bought and renovated 18 buildings, including the SoHo Building on Greene Street, turning it into the district's largest and tallest mixed-use office building. In a neighborhood of scruffy artists" taverns, he opened restaurants to attract a young and chic crowd: first the Greene Street Café, a jazz supper club, and then the SoHo Kitchen and Bar, an ancestor of the wine bar. Roberta Brandes Gratz, the author of several books on urban lifestyles and a former member of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, said Mr. Goldman's genius was in recognizing not just the value of old buildings but also the importance of their context. "He understood that what makes a neighborhood is the diversity of uses," she said. Restaurants put people on the streets and add vibrancy. People who wanted to stay in the city wanted to walk to amenities and not drive. On a trip to a developers" conference in Miami in 1985, Mr. Goldman went with local preservationists to see crumbling Art Deco hotels along a section of turquoise ocean in Miami Beach. Seeing the area's potential, he started buying - one building a month for 18 months. With a talent for self-promotion, he came to say he had "discovered" South Beach, although it was already a decade in the making when he began investing in it. No matter, said Michael D. Kinerk, chairman emeritus of the Miami Design Preservation League, the caretaker of Miami Beach's historic districts. He wasn't the first, but he was early, and he was the largest and the most visionary. Mr. Kinerk said that unlike other developers, Mr. Goldman endeared himself to preservationists by saving the interiors of Art Deco gems as well as their exteriors, furnishing them with period furniture and framed old photos. Although some of his bets proved disappointing, most notably a joint development effort with the Archon Group in Boston, he had successes in addition to South Beach and SoHo. He helped bring life back to the Rittenhouse Square area of Philadelphia and to Wall Street after dark in the 1990s by opening the Wall Street Kitchen and Bar in the Banknote building and the Stone Street Tavern, as well as loft apartments. In his last years, he focused on developing Wynwood, an arts warehouse district in Miami. Mr. Goldman won the Louise du Pont Crowninshield Award from the National Trust for Historical Preservation in 2010 for lifetime achievement. Richard Anthony Goldman, who was born in Wilmington, Del., on Dec. 6, 1943, was adopted by Charles and Tillie Goldman, a prosperous couple who lived on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He worked in his father's coat factory from the age of 15 to learn the trade. Mr. Goldman went to Emerson College in Boston, where, on the first day of orientation, he met Janet Ehrlich. They married in 1966, the same year he graduated with a bachelor's degree in drama. After returning to New York, Mr. Goldman learned real estate from an uncle. "He would stay late and bring his uncle a Scotch," Ms. Goldman recalled, "and they would talk real estate, and that's where he got his foundation in the business." In 1968, he struck out on his own and founded the Goldman Properties Company, which worked mainly on the Upper West Side. He lived in SoHo. He and his wife had two children, but by the mid-1970s, deciding that they had married too young, they divorced, Ms. Goldman said. In retrospect, she added, "it was a good thing - it allowed us to branch out and try new things." Mr. Goldman soon opened the Greene Street Café, a business investment that also gave him a place to go and sing without being kicked off the stage, Ms. Goldman said. "Tony was a crooner," she said. She and Mr. Goldman remarried in 1977, and eventually, both their children, Jessica Goldman Srebnick and Joey Goldman, joined the business. Ms. Goldman Srebnick will become the chief executive of Goldman Properties. In addition to his wife and children, he is survived by a brother, Mark, from his adoptive family. About 15 years ago, Mr. Goldman was reunited with his birth family. He is also survived by a sister from that family, Pam Skerker.