Yoel Goldman

Goldman was born to a Hasidic Jewish family into the Satmar dynasty[1] He was raised in Borough Park and began his career in the 2000s by purchasing small, multifamily properties and later, large multifamily buildings and development of new buildings.[2] After intensive lobbying by the Hasidic community to rezone Williamsburg and Greenpoint - where they historically had large holdings - the neighborhoods experienced rapid gentrification.[1] Goldman was one of the first developers to focus on rentals rather than condominiums in Williamsburg.[3] After the 2008 recession, he purchased numerous buildings in Brooklyn at sharply deflated prices[1] and when the economy turned, reaped the benefits from the economic recovery.

In 2012, along with his partners Toby Moskovits, he purchased the Williamsburg Generator site for $31.8 million.[1] His relationship with Moskovits ended in 2015 after she accused him and their other partner, Joel Gluck, of issuing a bond in Israel using her interest in the partnership as collateral without her consent.[2] They settled and divided their jointly owned properties.[4] In the spring of 2014, he was criticized for purchasing 14 Crown Heights apartment buildings and then drastically increasing the rents; he later reduced the increases.[5][6] In April 2016, he purchased a portion of the Rheingold Brewery site in Bushwick for $72.2 million[1] from Joseph Tabak’s Princeton Holdings and Robert Wolf’s Read Property Group; in April 2016, he purchased the remainder for $72 million.[7] As of August 2016, Goldman owns a portfolio of 140 rental buildings valued at $850 million (based on a bond offering on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange which included most of his holdings).[1][8]

Along with fellow Hasidic developers Joseph Brunner, Isaac Hager, Simon Dushinsky, and Joel Schreiber, he is one of the most prominent developers in Brooklyn[9][10][11] credited with helping to gentrify Williamsburg, Bushwick, Greenpoint, Borough Park, and Bedford-Stuyvesant.[1]

• ODA's 608 Franklin Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn - an eight-story, 106-unit residential project. 125,350 square feet apartment building designed by ODA Architecture[12]
• 123 Melrose Street [13]
• Condor Hotel (with Zelig Weiss), Williamsburg[14]
• 1548 Bedford Ave, 100 room hotel, Crown Heights[15][16]
• Bushwick II, 800-900 units, Williamsburg[17][18]
• 71 White Street, 112 room hotel, Bushwick[7]
• 96 Wythe Avenue, 160-room hotel, Williamsburg[19]
• 608 Franklin Avenue, 120 unit, 8 story apartment building, Crown Heights[19]