Goldberg is changing lives in the twilight of his.

Marshall Goldberg is a 76 year old, well dressed and fit, retired businessman, who lives on Manhattan's Upper West Side and vacations in Italy. Goldberg ran the $50M-a-year Monarch Wine & Import Company which produced Manischewitz Wine in Brooklyn and imported various wines and beers from all over the world.

Monarch was sold in 1986. Goldberg tried retirement, but realized he wasn't ready ... and he still isn't.

Instead, he has a full-time second career doing something he had no training for that "changes people's lives on a daily basis."

While running his business, Marshall Goldberg served for 20 years on the board (eight years as Chairman) of Palladia Inc., then a small nonprofit organization in New York City providing substance abuse treatment to about 100 ex-addicts. Today, the organization is one of New York City's largest, most innovative multi-service agencies, with 500 employees and a $38 million budget.

It is Marshall Goldberg, director of Palladia's Real Estate Division, who is largely responsible for Palladia's venture into real estate.

In 1996, Palladia's visionary president, Jane Velez, realized that people coming out of their treatment programs needed a safe, secure place to live and reunite with their children. She wanted a businessman to start a real estate division focusing on "supportive housing" where residents would live in buildings with a safety net of services and enrichment programs for their children. Goldberg agreed to take this on fulltime.

He took about a year to figure out how Palladia could get low income housing tax credits from the government to build or renovate apartment buildings and keep the developer's fee for the next project. Palladia puts together partnerships with city, state and federal agencies and with the private sector (syndicators) to create apartments in buildings for people who had no home at all.

Today, Palladia operates 400 units of supportive housing--eight buildings in Manhattan and the Bronx--with apartments for families and singles. One of their buildings, Chelsea House, a former crack den, recently won an architectural award. On May 26, Palladia opened Flora Vista, a newly constructed building of 20 large studio apartments in East Harlem with a landscaped garden and art-graced corridors. "You can't tell that it is supportive housing," says Goldberg.

Recently, Goldberg faced a new and bigger challenge. Palladia wanted to move its headquarters to East Harlem and buy a building so it would have an investment and stop paying escalating rent. Marshall found a newly built, vacant building (originally built by the Legal Aid Society) and then had to figure how Palladia would pay the $9.3 million asking price. He sought financing from IDA bonds issued by New York City and, within five months, the bonds were issued and sold. Palladia moved into their new building in late May.

Marshall says his life has changed dramatically as a result of his second career.

"I reflect back on my life in business and say to friends of mine: Do you ever remember a day that you thought that you really helped somebody, and changed their life? Helping is one thing--changing their life is another. And thinking back, I couldn't say that I ever remember one person whose life I changed as a result of what I did in business. At Palladia, I get the opportunity to do it every day. People come up to you and they hug you and kiss you. You walk down the street and you see people and they're dressed differently, and they're going to work and they say to you, "Gee, I always remember how you and Palladia helped me."

"While most business people write a check or serve on a board, they don't make the decisions that change people's lives. I've been able to do that. That's why I enjoy this work so much. It's the greatest job I have ever had."

Adds Goldberg: "Working at Palladia has also shown me why we have been able to attract so many smart people in a field not known for its' high salaries. There is no price on the gratification we get from the work we do."