The rapid expansion of urban areas due to economic and geopolitical shifts in the past century has led to a growing surplus of unused land, particularly brownfields, in cities worldwide, both developed and developing. In response to the imperative of resource efficiency and the need to curb urban sprawl, recycling and repurposing brownfields has emerged as a practical policy approach in recent decades. Despite its adoption as a significant policy agenda in many countries, the concept of brownfields remains largely unrecognized within Iran’s current legal and regulatory framework, thus lacking structured support for their regeneration. The importance of redeveloping brownfields in urban areas of Iran has received minimal attention in the country’s urban management and planning systems, as their potential remains untapped by governmental bodies, developers, and other relevant stakeholders. This research aims to investigate the historical emergence of industrial brownfields within Iranian cities, considering broader trends of urban transformation and shifts in manufacturing industries since the early twentieth century. Drawing on semi-structured interviews and case study site visits in several Iranian cities, the research has enabled the collection and analysis of original empirical data collection relating to brownfield formation in Iran. The findings from this study suggest that the brownfield issue is widespread in Iran, driven by two prominent trends: industrial restructuring, influenced largely by structural changes and varying labor costs, and industrial suburbanization, characterized by the movement of manufacturing activities away from central cities to suburban areas.