In an interview, both Fred and Tom expressed resignation and a little bewilderment. They now operate in the family’s longtime offices on Park Avenue South as TF Cornerstone, while Henry runs a separate business under the Rockrose name.

“We’re still scratching our heads about why it all happened,” said Tom, 64.

The tensions were evident last week as the three gathered for a photograph for this article. When Henry, as the eldest brother, insisted on his traditional spot in the middle, Fred and Tom simultaneously responded, “No way.”

THE Elghanayans’ father, Nourallah, was a prominent manufacturer in Iran under the shah. He moved his family to Queens in the 1950s, when Houchang, who is known as Henry, and Tom were children. Their father and mother continued to shuttle between Iran and Queens, where the family settled on Rockrose Place, a two-block-long street in Forest Hills.

Their father dabbled in real estate, but Tom suggested that their formative moments came during “vicious, daylong Monopoly” games. “Monopoly teaches you many long-term lessons: to buy property and build quickly,” he said. “You can get wiped out by the randomness of the dice, or the vagaries of the market.”

The brothers very nearly crashed and burned with their first project in 1970, when they began renovating small buildings in and around Greenwich Village. Their father had given Henry and Tom $100,000 to start the business. They put everything they had into renovating a walkup at 31 West 16th Street.

Just as they finished, the real estate market crashed. They were able to sell only one of the six apartments. Henry and Tom, as well as Fred, who would join them in the business, each moved into a unit, while the ground-floor apartment became an office. “We were very lucky to sell that one unit,” Henry said. “We needed the money.”

As the market came back, they refinanced and began buying other buildings, on the Upper West Side and in Brooklyn Heights. Each deal brought a larger renovation project, and then construction of new buildings. In 1977, they converted an industrial building on East 46th Street into Turtle Bay Towers, with 337 rental apartments. A decade later, they turned a landmark warehouse into the Archive, with 479 rental apartments at 666 Greenwich Street.