Mehrdad Moayedi

Moayedi moved from Tehran to the suburbs of Fort Worth as a teen and quickly became a mentee to titans in North Texas real estate, like homebuilders Don and Terry Horton. 

The Iranian-American founder is now the most prolific single-family lot developer in North Texas. 

He’s taken a number of business detours through landscaping, masonry and infrastructure before landing on real estate. 

He founded Farmers Branch-based Centurion American Development Group in 1990. In addition to developing more than 75,000 acres of land in and around the Metroplex, he’s also spearheaded the redevelopment of the Statler Hotel in downtown Dallas and the Collin Creek Mall, which he’s transforming into a mixed-use development with more than 3,000 housing units, 1.3 million square feet of office space and 300,000 square feet of retail. In 2025, he bought 550 acres as part of the Preston Harbor development on Lake Texoma. Moayedi also develops spec mansions in Dallas through another business, Crescent Estates Custom Homes.

He’s a proud Republican and a longtime donor to President Donald Trump, and even purchased a jet once owned by the president in 2024. Investor Kyle Bass, of “The Big Short” fame, accused one of Centurion American’s lenders, United Development Fund, of operating as a Ponzi scheme in which Centurion was complicit. The lawsuit is ongoing. Four UDF execs landed in jail, but Moayedi and Centurion American, UDF’s largest borrower, escaped the fray relatively unscathed.

— Isaiah Mitchell