Ali Ebrahimi, a prominent builder who left Iran during the 1979 revolution and settled in Houston where he built second successful real estate career, died Aug. 14. He was 79.
Ebrahimi’s Houston-based development and management company, Ersa Grae Corp., built several master-planned communities containing thousands of residential lots, along with shopping centers, office buildings and condominiums. His projects were primarily in Houston, but he also owned and developed property in Florida, California and Tennessee.
Ersa Grae’s Houston-area residential communities include Silver Ranch, Fieldstone, Stone Creek Estates, Falcon Ranch and Copper Grove. The company also developed a two-story shopping center at the busy southwest corner of Kirby Drive and the Southwest Freeway, and most recently an office building at 9090 Katy Freeway developed for the Stoller Group.
“Everyone respected him in town, not just from a business standpoint but from the aspect of him being fair,” said his son Reza Ebrhimi.
Born in a village east of Tehran, Ebrahimi attended college in the United States, earning an engineering degree from the University of Maryland and a master’s in engineering from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. After graduate school he moved back to Iran, where he worked in real estate and construction. He started a company that grew to become a one of the region’s largest. Its work included building houses, roads, grocery stores and airports.
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Yousef Panahpour, who met Ebrahimi in the early 1970s while they were both developers in Iran, said he was a shrewd businessman but also patient and kind.
“He was a good listener,” Panahpour said. “In business he could be tough, but his heart was very much kind.”
The pair came to Houston around the same time and partnered on many projects — one of which led to a lawsuit that resulted in a federal jury awarding them $17.5 million in 1990.
The developers sued their former law firm for malpractice stemming from an earlier securities lawsuit filed. The partners had bee sued over an venture in which they would help people buy homes by investing alongside them. The developers said the firm never disclosed certain information that would have prevented them from being sued and sought $8.8 million in damages.
Ebrahimi was profiled in the 2008 book “Eminent Persians: The Men and Women Who Made Modern Iran” (Syracuse University Press) by Abbas Milani, which said he had a “penchant for frank and honest discourse” and “dedication to hard work.”
He was a founding member of the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans. In 2006, he received an Ellis Island Medal of Honor, an award celebrating the contributions immigrants have made to American society.
Ebrahimi is survived by his wife of 43 years, Suzanne Tunnell Ebrahimi, two sisters, five children and eight grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at a later date.
This story includes previous reporting from the Associated Press.
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Ersa Grae Corp.’s Ali Ebrahimi dies at 79 - Houston Chronicle
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