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Young, Ambitious, Idealistic and Now Developers

Can Tavsanoglu Cagatay Okutan Can Tavsanoglu

One of the other young Turkish entraprenaurs who have specialized in investments in real estate property is Can Tavşanoğlu,  one of the founding partners of Caldera Real Estate Ventures (CREV).  CREV was co-founded by Can Tavşanoğlu in New York in May of 2017. A business person who have handled real estate development projects worth of $1.5bn and had experience in creating an institutional investment fund of $3bn, Tavşanoğlu is also a graduate of Columbia University’s graduate program of Real Estate Investment and Development. Promising investors optimum profit in short and long term with its creative partnership agreements and expert techniques of project development, Caldera works on exciting residential and commercial projects in New York and Miami.



Tavşanoğlu attended İstanbul Technical University to attain education in architecture and worked at an architecture firm in London for some time. “I realized that rather than architecture, investments in real estate property, land development, and property construction finance are more appealing to me. So, I decided to change my field”, he says and underlines that this decision of his for a career change coincided with the time period in 2009 when the greatest real estate crisis of his generation took place.

Tavşanoğlu advanced himself in his real estate investment career by attending Columbia University to get a master’s in the field. Born in İstanbul, Can Tavşanoğlu completed his 8 years long education at German High School with a score ranked in top ten at his school. Afterwards, he graduated from İstanbul Technical University’s (İTÜ) architecture department.

Following his graduation from İTÜ, he worked in London at a successful architecture firm named ORMS. Then, he graduated from the Real Estate Investment and Development master’s program of one of the leading universities of the world, Columbia University of New York. Tavşanoğlu then started working at an investment office of Middle East based American Properties firm, which has a big office and grand projects in New York.

He describes the experience he gained at this firm as ‘priceless’. At the end of 2010, he transferred to Lightstone Group, which is a real estate property investment firm with 11,000 residences, around 1 million meter square commercial land, and a total wealth of around 3bn USD. Tavşanoğlu was one of the members of the core team that created the Lightstone Group’s real estate development unit in New York.

Throughout the four years he spent at Lightstone, Tavşanoğlu handled projects involving luxury rental residentials and hotels, as well as, sale of a land, amounting to nearly 1bn USD.

Tavşanoğlu then took a management role for the sale and finance of lands at New York office of XİN Development, a Chinese property development firm with a yearly turnover of around 1bn USD. Having managed to double the residence sales project capacity of XİN within the 2.5 years of his employment there, Tavşanoğlu led eye-catching projects both in and outside of Manhattan, as well as, financing with banks in transactions over 125 mn USD.

Tavşanoğlu left XİN Development in 2017 and founded Caldera Real Estate Ventures. The young executive in real estate sector emphasizes that New York is a market that attracts everyone in the business world across the  globe and says: “Bretix, the strength of dollar and the stability of American economy show that New York, even with its small pieces of land, has a great potential for smart investors”.

Mentioning that there are also groups from Turkey that are interested in real estate investments, Tavşanoğlu draws further attention to the endurance of the market in New York. “All investors must be patient when dealing with the real estate market of New York. Its business model is completely different. Relations are a crucial factor. The processes of due diligence and bargaining develop very rapidly. It took us around two months to find the land, design the project, and purchase the land for our latest project for which we bought a land worth of 66 mn USD. Working with the right consultants and teams is another important point. There are several things to pay attention to, such as whether the project has a mortgage or not; whether there is a metro line passing under it or not; and, whether there are any geographical, environmental or zoning-related issues or not. Purchasing real estate property is like a field of arts and science. And, a good purchaser must know how to purchase it and how to manage the consultants and lawyers”, he says.

Tavşanoğlu speaks English, German, and Turkish;  and, he is interested in gourmet food, skiing, and traveling. Residing in New York, Tavşanoğlu also visits Miami often.



Last modified onMonday, 15 January 2018 16:15
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