Glendale rug store at odds with city, once again

A family-run rug store said it's facing resistance from the City of Glendale, yet again. This time over how they want to develop their land.

Last year, Glendale wanted to buy the families more than five acres of land on the corner of Colorado Boulevard and Cherry Creek Drive South for a multi-million dollar project known as Glendale 180.

The city also got the authority to take the land using eminent domain, but after months of fighting back Glendale agreed not to take their property and move forward with the project without it.

Nasrin Khology and her family own the land and Authentic Persian and Oriental Rugs -- which has been in business for more than 25 years.

She said they now want to turn their land into a residential high-rise, built around the rug store.

"We want to do what's best for the neighborhood, for us and for everybody involved," said Khology.

Khology said they brought in well-known developer Dana Crawford, who has redeveloped more than 800,000 square feet of historic property in Denver including Union Station and the Oxford Hotel.

With Crawford's vision, Khology said they met with the city to discuss the idea.

Glendale recorded the hour-long meeting. A transcript from the meeting showed how it ended:

Dana Crawford: "Is there any attitude to flexibility?"

Chuck Line, Deputy City Manager: "Um … currently … uh, we have a lot of … uh … issues as you're probably aware of the history right now is that we have things that, you know, I promised the counsel -- for the Khology's that we would not discuss and that so we have you could say as you mentioned baggage or garbage that we have to work through, you know, prior to staff even looking at and even examining if we have any flexibility or not."

"We came out understanding the city has not flexibility," said Khology.

Glendale wouldn't go on-camera, but over the phone told Denver7 reporter Jennifer Kovaleski that they've never allowed residential properites in this area and said it would require a zoning change, which would be a paradigm shift for the city.

"We feel like they're trying to make it impossible for us to do anything so we'll give up, we'll never give up -- we'll never give up," said Khology.

However, after the city newspaper, the Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle, published a story using a photo of a high-rise building, the Khology's said they were never brought to the meeting -- calling their development the "Tehranian Death Star."

Khology said it got personal.

"They're pushing me to feel non-American," she said. "Why are we letting these people bring our background into this -- how long do we have to be American to be considered one?"

Glendale said they would really like to see the land developed, but consist with the code.

Khology said they plan to wait and try again to find another plan that works