"I hope it doesn’t sound crude, but it
reflects how things seem to work out for my benefit," says the owner of the Orange County, Va., development company. "Take,
for instance, how I became involved with Anderson &
Associates."
Several years ago, an A&A project manager approached Azimipour
about getting an easement to run a 12-inch water pipe through A&K’s property to a
community college.
"Some people might object to a pipeline through their land, but
that water line was just what I needed for development," Azimipour said.
"A&A did the work; the college paid for it; and the value of my property doubled.
Everybody thought I was a nice guy. Wasn’t I lucky?"
Azimipour started doing business with A&A soon after – at
first small projects, then preparing infrastructure and development plans for an 80-acre
mixed-use development and the Germanna
Office Park, with its underground stormwater management facility. Soon there will be
much more, Azimipour predicts.
"I think we could grow 10 times larger in the next five
years," he says.
A&K is splitting into 6 corporations: acquisitions, development,
homes, commercial, real estate, and a titling company. On his current holdings alone,
Azimipour expects to build at least 100 homes a year.
"I buy land, rezone it, and develop it. It’s a hobby I make
money at," says Azimipour. "When I started in 1988, I didn’t even know what
a 2x 4 was."
What Iranian-born and graduate school-educated Azimipour does know is
finance – what a dollar is worth over time. And he knows how important it is for a
builder to have control over land. In the fast-growing area between Orange and Fredericksburg, he claims control over most of
the good, developable parcels and has plans to develop them.
But Azimipour isn’t all business. He and his wife, Farzaneh, have
19-month-old twin daughters, Sara and Saba, who are the "light of [his] life."
"They keep me busy. They had me up last night, first one and then
the other, but at least I know someone really needs me," he says.
He built a 61,000 square-foot, three-story office building near Lake of the Woods in Orange County for the
twins’ benefit. "It will be paid off when they go to college. I’m thinking
that if they go to some first-rate universities – ones I would have loved to attend
if I had had the opportunity – the building will be theirs when they graduate." &
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