[1] Elghanayan's father, Nourallah, belonged to a prominent manufacturing family in Iran during the reign of the Shah[1] and was also involved in the import-export business.
[6] In 1945, his father moved the family to Forest Hills, Queens[5][1] where he made investments in real estate.
[5] In 1970, with $100,000 in seed money from their father, the three eldest brothers renovated a six-apartment walk-up apartment building in Greenwich Village but nearly lost their investment when the market collapsed.
[1] Once the market recovered, they refinanced and invested in ever larger buildings on the Upper West Side and in Brooklyn Heights including the 337 unit Turtle Bay Towers; the historic 479 unit Archive in the West Village, which they converted into lofts;[1] the Cast Iron Building; and the Carnegie Hall Tower.
Henry won the firm's development projects, the right to the Rockrose name, and eight residential buildings with 2,634 apartments.