German Business In Southwest Florida

"Southwest Florida has become the Mediterranean of the West," says Richard Ricciani, managing partner of Ricciani, Mathis & Jessen CPAs in Fort Myers. He explains that Germans with a tradition of owning sunny Mediterranean island get-away properties have become disillusioned with the overbuilding, pollution and currency uncertainties there. Now the lifestyle they seek is here.

Germans discovered Southwest Florida as a vacation spot in the mid- to late-1980s. Thousands flocked to warm themselves on Florida beaches, patronize hotels, buy vacation rentals and invest in lots for retirement income. But during the past five years, the economic and political heat has turned up at home. The more adventurous now eye Florida as the best place to secure their future.

Vacation properties are becoming second homes. Trend-setting German baby boomers routinely fly the Atlantic, managing business interests on both continents. Local commercial investment by retirees has also intensified in the past two years.

Gord and Marleis von Campe of Fort Myers exemplify the newest sect of German national entrepreneurs. Gord is in Florida four to five months each year but maintains residency in Germany to retain credit with banks there. While the von Campe's daughter attends college in America, Marleis lives in Florida on a temporary visa.

Gord von Campe's business in Germany is "too big too leave." But his ISG Development company, working hand in hand with his interest in a Southwest Florida Re/Max franchise, is set to raise and sell 16 houses in Cape Coral. A commercial diagnostic center is also coming out of the ground. "If all the things we started work out," he says, "we'll apply for residency for six to nine months a year on an investor's visa."

Birds of a Feather

The migration of German talent and capital to Florida is accelerating. German corporations open affiliates here. Skilled technicians, middle managers and entrepreneurs purchase local companies. Others start their own businesses.

Recent examples include a fitness center operator who became a developer, a pharmacist shopping for a motel, a discotheque owner opening an entertainment center--or a motel, or a restaurant.

These German-owned businesses join a computer software development company, model train museum, moving company, blue print supplier and garment dye import-export business drawn by advantages of the local foreign trade zone at Southwest Florida International Airport.

Michael Schneider-Christians left Germany before the current influx with "five suitcases, two kids and a dream to live where you don't need hats, scarves or coats." Today he's a broker with Century 21 Sunbelt Realty in Cape Coral, helping others gain a local foothold and a comfort factor so they have an "escape country," should they need it.

"Ninety percent of German citizens will stay put (in Germany)," says Schneider-Christians. "But those investigating ways to leave are serious."

Schneider-Christians and others say there are many strong motivations to leave Germany, including Euro threats to the Deutsche Mark, a personal income tax of 55 percent, corporate taxes as high as 60 to 80 percent, a government struggling to unite East-West German economies and a rising tide of immigrants and outsiders trying to take advantage of a government in transition.

"Some have a hard time seeing a future for themselves and their kids in Germany," says Schneider-Christians. "Those who have a clear idea of what they need to do to succeed in this country fare better than those just riding the current wave."

Safe Landings

A new breed of German Americans and German-speaking Americans are making it their business to introduce potential new residents and citizens to the ins and outs of Florida life. Real estate agents, attorneys and accountants were the first to sight this niche market. Recently they've been joined by two area mortgage brokers and a smattering of bankers.

Ernest Seemann, a Cape Coral attorney specializing in international law at Seemann & Schutt P.A., says he spends much of his time "trying to keep German-speaking newcomers out of trouble." Ninety-eight percent of his clientele, as well as his entire staff, speak German as a first or second language. He dubs Southwest Florida, from Port Charlotte to Naples and from Sanibel to Lehigh Acres, "Little Germany."

Cape Coral, which began advertising properties to Germans in the early 1970s, still leads the way in German business, but other communities are gaining ground. Lee and Collier County economic development offices have joined local tourism bureaus in persistently pursuing this market.

Supported by independent transatlantic German-language publications like Fort Myers-based Florida Journal and Naples-based Willkommen, the marketing efforts seem to be working.

Florida drew about 500,000 German visitors in 1996. In 1997, 129,124 Germans visited Lee County . Add Germans in Collier County, and the statistics soar higher. "Every time I walk my neighborhood, I discover a new German family moved in," says Steve Tirey, director of the Chamber of Southwest Florida.

Entrepreneurs are wise to locate their business here before buying a house, in order to eliminate troublesome commuting. The whole process usually takes 18 to 36 months for those buying an established business, three to five years for a start-up.

Not as Easy as it Looks

Incoming Germans, who see Florida as affordable luxury, tend to operate on a cash basis. But established banking relationships in Germany don't count here. Obtaining a domestic loan, foreign national loan or U.S. credit rating isn't easy. Neither is obtaining one of a variety of immigration visas or a green card. Neither is transferring professional certification. Neither is deciphering U.S. business contract and tax law. Neither is gaining sufficient facility with English to cope with legal and technical transactions.

"Be flexible, have an idea, believe in your idea, and you have a great chance of making it here," counsels Kirsten Paul, president of Paul & Partners Financial Group in Fort Myers. "If you come without a plan, you can get stuck and disoriented."

In 1997, just three years after arriving in Florida on a working visa, Paul organized Southwest Florida's first German American Trade Exhibition. She's a good example of a German-trained banker who made the switch to mortgage brokering, spurred on by sunny waters, spacious horizons and a lead on the opportunity to serve the area's burgeoning German-speaking population.

Rainer Filthaut, a former accountant from Germany and Switzerland, made his move to real estate sales and brokering in Naples in 1993. Seventy percent of his clients at International Realty Consultants are mainly German-speaking Europeans. Filthaut notes the failure rate for German-launched businesses is relatively small, because the regulatory hurdles encounte