Welcome to the Pleasure Dome

Canada's Ghermezians create Disney-style shopping playgrounds

In their adopted hometown of Edmonton, Alta., the immigrant Ghermezian brothers -- Eskandar, Nader, Raphael and Bahman -- are figures swaddled in rumor and mystery. Fiercely privacyminded, they refuse to divulge their exact ages and are rarely photographed together. Their rapid-fire conversations in Farsi and French often befuddle English-speaking business peers. But from behind that fog, the four Iranian natives have created one of Canada's biggest and most spectacular real estate baronies and are quickly expanding their razzle-dazzle fiefdom southward. Before long, U.S. consumers will get a full exposure to the revolutionary marketing flair of the Ghermezians, who have combined a...

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