Real Estate’s Exiled Iranian-Americans Reflect Crisis in Iran

Centurion American Development founder Mehrdad Moayedi has seen a lot of dreams come true in his transformation from Iranian immigrant teen to one of Texas’ top developers.

The crisis in his homeland has reignited a long-simmering, fundamental dream still unrealized.

“I don’t want anything more in my life than to see Iran become more democratic, like the United States,” Moayedi said when asked about the protests that have erupted across the country in the last few weeks.

Demonstrations began at the end of the year when Iranians took to the streets to protest inflation. The Iranian government responded with an internet blackout that provided cover to security forces killing protesters; days later, the death toll is in the thousands.

“The streets are literally awash in the blood of young people,” said Iranian-born developer Shahab Karmely, who operates in New York and South Florida.

Karmely’s father, who was in the rug business and owned real estate in Iran, was put on a death list but managed to escape with the family in 1978. Karmely, after being deported from the U.S., was taken in as a refugee in the U.K.

Moayedi and Karmely are two of the millions of Iranians whose families fled the country around the time of the revolution and haven’t been able to return. They settled in California, New York and Texas, and some, like Moayedi and Karmely, became successful in real estate. They may not agree on a path to peace, but they’re united in seeing this moment as an opening for democratic change in Iran.

While Austin-based developer Ari Rastegar has never visited his father’s homeland, “My entire life has been these conversations and the trauma that ensued from it,” he said. Born in Austin in 1982, Rastegar, who founded Rastegar Property Company, grew up listening to stories from his grandfather, who was the shah’s doctor.

Like Moayedi, he would like to see Iran’s leader be someone chosen by the people of Iran.

Moayedi and Rastegar, men from different generations who were born in different countries, agree the conflict shouldn’t be used to fuel Islamophobia.

“Islam doesn’t teach that kind of stuff,” Moayedi said. “These are just goons and gangsters killing people left and right.”

Islam is a “very peaceful, beautiful religion,” echoed Rastegar. “This is a dictator fuckhead thing. This is not a Muslim thing.”

Allie Beth’s bid for local control

Dallas’ reigning luxury brokerage Allie Beth Allman & Associates is making a bid to preserve local control as Compass consolidates power throughout Texas. CEO Keith Conlon recently acquired an ownership stake in the firm in an equity investment deal with its parent company, Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based HomeServices of America.

The deal aims to keep the company’s center of authority local as Compass gathers more teams under its banner after its merger with Anywhere Real Estate was finalized earlier this month. Dallas is the rare Texas market that’s dominated by homegrown brands. It’s the only city of the state’s three top luxury markets in which the biggest sale of the year was represented by agents outside of Compass or the brands under its umbrella. Two Allie Beth Allman agents negotiated the sale of 6601 Hunters Glen Road in Dallas for $30.5 million, the state’s most expensive residential sale of 2025.

UBS deepens Y’all Street bench

Y’all Street logged another high-profile win when UBS announced it’s establishing an office hub in Uptown. The wealth management firm will take 26,000 square feet at 23Springs, the 26-story office building at 2323 Cedar Springs Road, whose tenant roster already includes Bank OZK, Deloitte and law firm Sidley Austin. A state filing estimates UBS will spend $5.6 million on the buildout, with construction slated to start this week and wrap up by June.

Lurin Capital’s legal issues spread to Alabama

The city of Huntsville, Alabama is the latest municipality to sue Jon Venetos’ troubled Dallas-based firm over conditions at one of its properties. In a Madison County Circuit Court lawsuit filed Jan. 2, the city claims Lurin has abandoned The Flats at Redstone, a 231-unit property at 2022 Golf Road. The lawsuit paints a bleak picture of the property Huntsville claims has been vacant for two years, with no utility service, missing windows and doors, a boarded-up exterior, overgrown weeds, siding hanging off of the buildings, a dilapidated metal playset and a pool full of dirty water.