When Nasrin Kholghy opened the letter from the 
city of Glendale, Colo., in April, it transported her
 back to another country in another time.
The letter notified Kholghy of an upcoming city
council meeting.
There, Glendale’s leaders would be voting to
approve the use of a tool that would give them
 the power to take Kholghy’s property and
 transform it into a planned retail, entertainment,
 and dining redevelopment project.
The news brought Kholghy back to Iran, the 
country she emigrated from alone in the 1970s.
“When I got the letter of them being able to use
 eminent domain, I really, really felt—we lost a
lot of land in Iran when the revolution happened,
” Kholghy said. “I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s
happening again. We’re losing it again.’”
Eminent domain is a power given to the
government to take private property for a
public use. In Kholghy’s case, the city had
its eyes on six acres of property her family
owned.
The property contains the family’s 30-year-old
rug business, Authentic Persian and Oriental
Rugs.
Last month, the city offered to buy the Kholghys’
property for $11 million. But the family rejected
the offer, saying instead they wanted to remain
in the community they’ve called home since
Kholghy came to the United States 40 years ago.
“I have memories of our kids jumping on rug piles.
 They pretended the floor was lava,” Kholghy said
in an interview with The Daily Signal. “We’ve had customers who’ve done that, and they bring their
kids. The same person who jumped on the rugs,
they bring their kids to jump on the rugs. It’s not
were just going to take this money and go away.”
Nasrin Kholghy looks at some of the rugs she sells at Authentic Persian and Oriental Rugs. (Photo: Nasrin Kholghy)
Nasrin Kholghy looks at some of the rugs she sells at
Authentic Persian and Oriental Rugs. (Photo: Nasrin Kholghy)
Humble Beginnings
It’s difficult not to smile when speaking to 
Kholghy about her start in the United States.
The oldest of five, Kholghy laughs as she
remembers details about her younger years.
In her early 20s, when she was just getting
started in the industry, Kholghy confronted and
challenged a rug shop owner.
“I told him I would open a shop and ‘put you 
out of business,’” Kholghy recalls. “Sometimes 
you forget [those] things.”
The Iranian woman has had the same phone 
number since 1976—”nobody else has that 
long-running of a phone number,” she said—
and still remembers the exact date she arrived
 in the United States from Iran: Jan. 6, 1975.
Kholghy traveled to the States with her mother, 
who returned to Iran a month later, leaving 
Kholghy alone to learn English in Trinidad, 
Colo., and pursue an American education.
Over the next four years, Kholghy settled into
 her life in the United States. She got married 
to her husband, Mozy Hemmati, at the close of 
1975, and the couple graduated together from the University of Colorado Denver four years later.
After graduation, Kholghy and her husband
decided to remain stateside, as the revolution
in Iran had broken out while they were in school.
By 1979, three of Kholghy’s four siblings had 
joined their oldest sister in the United States, 
and they all lived together in a home in Glendale, 
Colo., which the family still owns today.
Then, 52 Americans were held hostage in Tehran,
 and it became impossible for Kholghy’s parents
 to send their children money.
But Kholghy’s dad found a way to help his kids.
“My father called and said, ‘The only thing that 
Iran is letting out is rugs, so I’m going to send 
you guys some rugs, and then sell them and 
eat and go to school and pay tuition. Just use 
it,’” Kholghy recalled.
When the first rugs arrived from Iran, Kholghy 
tried to sell them to other stores.
She opened the Yellow Pages, found the 
largest ad for rugs she could find and made an appointment. But after a bad experience with
 the store’s owner—the same man she vowed 
to put out of business—Kholghy found herself 
outside of an empty storefront in the Cherry 
Creek Shopping Center.
The building was set to be demolished, and
 management told Kholghy they were no longer
 leasing.
She offered to lease the space for just one day, 
one week, one month—the amount of time 
didn’t matter—so long as Kholghy had a place 
to sell the rugs her father had sent from Iran.
Kholghy’s pleas worked, and she began leasing 
the space.
“We didn’t even know what they were worth,” 
she said of the Persian rugs her father sent. 
“We just sold them for whatever people paid
 for them.”
Now more than three decades later, what
began as a temporary way for the Kholghy’s 
to pay their college tuition has grown into a 
full-time business, Authentic Persian and 
Oriental Rugs.
“Oh, my God, we got lucky,” Kholghy said,
 looking back at how her business began.
“People came.”
Adding To the Land
For the last 25 years, the Kholghys have been 
running their business on roughly an acre of 
property located on one of the busiest streets in the Denver area.
The family runs the store together. In 2006,
they officially purchased their property and
the adjacent five acres of land, which they
now lease to a hair salon, marijuana shop,
car dealership, and detail center.
“We’ve always had a feeling that this area 
could be much nicer, better, with more stuff,” 
Kholghy said. “We thought of adding little 
things to the land.”
In 2007, the family decided to put together 
a plan to spruce up their property, drafting a redevelopment plan that included 11 
condominiums on top of two stories of 
restaurants and shops, including their 
own store, Authentic Persian and Oriental Rugs.
The Kholghy family attempted to work with the city to redevelop the property they own in Glendale, Colo. The city rejected their plans and unveiled their own proposal that didn't include Authentic Persian and Oriental Rugs. (Photo: Nasrin Kholghy)
The Kholghy family attempted to work with the city to redevelop
 the property they own in Glendale, Colo. The city rejected their
 plans and unveiled their own proposal that didn’t include
Authentic Persian and Oriental Rugs. (Photo: Nasrin Kholghy)
It was Kholghy’s dream to live in one of the condos overlooking the business she built, which she knew 
her own children would take over eventually.
“I had in my head that when I retire and I’m old,
I can be upstairs and still watch over [the family],”
 Kholghy said.
The family submitted the plan to the city, which
 considered but eventually rejected it.
“After talking back and forth with them, it became 
apparent they weren’t going to let us do anything 
we wanted,” Kholghy said. “They’re going to find 
a way to say no.”
‘It’s Happening All Over Again’
Just before the city of Glendale sent the 
Kholghys the letter notifying them about the
 potential for condemnation, officials
unveiled Glendale 180, “a dining and entertainment 
development that reestablishes Glendale’s position 
as the essential social hub of the Denver area.”
The 42-acre project is projected to cost $175 million
 and, according to a map of the proposed site 
released by the city, is situated on property
 that includes the land the Kholghys own.
After unsuccessful negotiations, the Glendale 
City Council voted in May to give the city’s 
Urban Renewal Authority the power to use 
eminent domain for the Kholghys’ six acres 
of land.
“I felt like it’s happening all over again, and I 
felt what my father must’ve felt when they took
 all his land in Iran,” Kholghy said.
The city is projected to break ground this fall. 
A city official declined to make Mayor Mike 
Dunafon and members of the city council 
available for interviews because of pending
 litigation.
The city unveiled a plan for Glendale 180, a dining, entertainment and retail space, in April. That same month, Glendale officials sent Nasrin Kholghy a letter letting her know the city council would be voting to approve the use of eminent domain to take her property. (Photo: Glendale 180)
The city unveiled a plan for Glendale 180, a dining,
entertainment and retail space, in April. That same month,
Glendale officials sent Nasrin Kholghy a letter letting her
know the city council would be voting to approve the use
of eminent domain to take her property. (Photo: Glendale 180)
Post-Kelo Takings
The last clause of the Fifth Amendment, the 
Takings Clause, gives the government the
 power to condemn land through eminent domain
 if it satisfies two conditions: first, it’s for a public 
use, and second, the owner of the land must 
receive just compensation.
Historically, public use constituted the taking 
of property for a school, bridge, or road—
an entity that benefited the public.
However, in 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court 
broadened the definition of public use in the 
controversial case Kelo v. City of New London. 
According to the high court’s ruling, the 
government has the right to use eminent 
domain to transfer property from one private 
party to another private party for economic 
development so long as just compensation 
is provided.
The ruling became one of the most despised 
in the court’s history.
In the wake of the Kelo decision, more than 
40 states passed laws limiting the use of 
eminent domain for transfers to private parties.
 In 11 of those states, the legislature passed
 constitutional amendments.
Immediately following the Kelo decision, 
reports of local and state governments’ 
using eminent domain for private-to-private
 takings died down.
Now, a decade after the Kelo case, Paul Larkin, 
a senior legal research fellow at The Heritage 
Foundation, said he believes municipalities will 
begin exercising their eminent domain power 
for such condemnations once again now that public pressure has eased some.
“There have been so many developments in
the law, so many developments in life and so 
many developments in politics since [2005] that 
it’s fair to say that this issue, which captivated the American public back 10 years ago when the 
Kelo decision was decided, now has dropped
 precipitously in the ordinal ranking of important
 issues,” Larkin said in an interview with The 
Daily Signal. “So it would surprise me for cities
 and states not to start to do this again.”
In the Kholghys’ case, the city voted to 
use eminent domain to transfer their privately 
owned property to another private party, who 
would then redevelop the land and build the
 restaurants and entertainment for Glendale 180.
Prior to approving the use of eminent domain
 to condemn the Kholghys’ property, the city 
conducted a study in 2013 to determine 
whether the area is “blighted.”
According to the survey, a “blighted area” 
is one that “substantially impairs or arrests 
the sound growth of the municipality, retards 
the provision of housing accommodations, 
or constitutes an economic or social liability, 
and is a menace to the public health, safety, 
morals or welfare.”
Additionally, for an area to be deemed 
“blighted,” it must satisfy at least four of 
12 factors identified by the state, which 
range from “slum, deteriorated, or 
deteriorating structures” to “unusual 
topography or inadequate public improvements
 or utilities.”
For a municipality to legally invoke eminent 
domain, a property must be deemed “blighted.”
After the 2013 study, the city said Authentic 
Persian and Oriental Rugs constituted a 
“blighted area.”
“Your business is what gives you sustenance,”
 Larkin said. “Business allows you to buy the 
house. Business allows you to provide groceries 
for the people who live there. The business 
allows you to provide a commodity that the 
community desires, and it gives you a place 
in the community as a respected businessperson.
 If they take your business away, they are essentially taking away that part of not simply what gives you sustenance, but also your identity.”
A sign posted in the window at Authentic Persian and Oriental Rugs calls on customers to protest the use of eminent domain in Glendale, Colo. (Photo: Screenshot/Fox News)
A sign posted in the window at Authentic Persian and
Oriental Rugs calls on customers to protest the use of
 eminent domain in Glendale, Colo. (Photo: Screenshot/Fox News)
‘In Limbo’
Late last month, Glendale offered to buy 
the Kholghys’ six acres from the family for 
$11 million and gave them several days to 
make their final decision.
The family turned it down, insisting they 
wanted to stay in the same location they 
had been for the last 25 years.
“The most important thing to us is being here
 and having the shop here,” Kholghy said.
The offer was millions less than a previous 
bid the city made in 2012, for $19 million, 
which the Kholghys also declined. The city, 
Kholghy suspects, was well aware that the 
family would decline their July proposal.
“If you said no to $19 million, why would 
we say yes to $11 million? They knew that,” 
Kholghy said. “I think they just said that to
 get the media and public pressure off of them.”
After the family denied the offer, the city 
issued a statement saying they would move
 forward with redevelopment without the Kholghys’ property.
“We were prepared and excited to proceed
 either way,” said Dunafon, the Glendale 
mayor, in the statement. “But now that the 
path forward is clear, things will really kick 
into high gear.”
Linda Cassady, Glendale’s deputy city 
manager, told The Daily Signal the city’s 
Urban Renewal Authority “doesn’t have 
any intention of condemning the property.”
“If we did that, it would be a really 
unfortunate thing for Glendale, and we 
really don’t have any intention to do that,” she said.
Kholghy, though, isn’t convinced.
The city has said they won’t use eminent
domain for the Glendale 180 project and
won’t remove the property’s “blighted”
designation, which is legally required to
use eminent domain.
“They say, ‘We will not use condemnation 
for this project,’” she said. “You will use it 
for another project. They leave themselves 
open to do what they want at any time.”
When asked if the city will re-examine whether 
the area is blighted, Cassady said the onus
 is on the Kholghys to “cure the blight.”
Larkin says the Kholghys are right to be skeptical.
“From what I know, everything the city has
done is fully consistent with an effort to be
able to argue in court, were they to take
that property, that they have acted with
entirely benevolent motives of protecting
the property, by advancing the community’s
 welfare,” he said.
“I don’t think these people are out of the 
woods yet,” Larkin continued. “After all, 
unless and until the city quite affirmatively 
says ‘we will not take your property,’ they 
can always walk back from anything they’ve
 said before. Even more so, even if they 
were to say ‘we will not take your property,’ 
that doesn’t prohibit other political officials 
from changing their mind in the future.’
Kholghy said she just wants to know her
 property will be safe from condemnation.
“We don’t want to fight. We don’t want to
 be in limbo,” Kholghy said. “You want to 
go on with your life. You want to know 
what to plan for. Life is hard as it is 
without thinking what’s going to happen 
in the next day or so.”