The founder of Bayrock Group, Tevfik Arif, came to the United States with hopes of establishing a prosperous company and quickly began doing business with the Trump Organization.
Tevfik Arif was born in Soviet Kazakhstan but moved to the United States in 2001, where he founded Bayrock Group. Many people dream of moving to the United States to make it big, but only a few succeed. One of them is Tevfik Arif.
The man who founded the luxury real estate development firm Bayrock Group and partnered with big brands such as the Trump Organization was originally born in Soviet Kazakhstan. There, he grew up with his parents and brothers of Turkish descent.
While other kids played football, young Tevfik Arif became interested in business and economics. As he grew older, he immersed himself in the subjects. Therefore, he began studying International Relations at the Moscow Trade and Economics Institute.
When he got his degree, he started working at the Soviet Ministry of Commerce and Trade. At the time, it was considered a very prestigious employer among the Soviet youths.
Over the next 17 years, Tevfik Arif worked his way up in the ministry’s hierarchy and ended up being the deputy head of the Ministry of Commerce and Trade’s Hotel Management Department.
Tevfik Arif’s many start-ups in various sectors gave him an extensive domestic and international network. In 1993, it prompted him to move to Turkey where he was among the pioneering forces behind the all-inclusive hotel concept introduced at the Labada luxury hotel in Antalya.
Tevfik Arif ended up staying in Turkey until 2001, when he moved to New York City. He wanted to be closer to the American part of his family and to explore new business paths in the United States.
In New York City, he founded the luxury real estate development company Bayrock Group. After multiple successful projects, Tevfik Arif decided to focus on larger projects. He also moved the company’s headquarters to the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in 2001 which resulted in a lucrative deal with the Trump Organization.
Tevfik Arif drafted a plan that would give the Trump Organization 18% equity in the SoHo building. In exchange, the construction would use the Trump brand in its name. The 46-floor building opened to the public in 2008.
They wanted to construct other buildings in Florida and Arizona under the same licensing terms that would leave the Trump Organization with 18% equity in the buildings in exchange for adding Trump to their names. However, their dreams were never realized because of the financial crisis that struck the world, and especially the American real estate market, in 2008.
The crisis led to a change in the market, which made Tevfik Arif leave the United States. Instead, he went to Europe and Asia, where his career began. While he is retired today, he still remains an advisor to Bayrock Group.