Five Questions

Juergen Hartwich spent 10 years after the Berlin Wall came down helping government agencies in eastern Germany bridge the gap with their western counterparts and improve operations. Now he’s bridging the gap between European and Southwest Floridian businesses.

In 1998, he moved from Germany and started a business in Cape Coral to get a visa, so he knows what immigrant entrepreneurs face. As executive director of the nonprofit European Business Council, a 112-member organization recently spun off from the Cape Coral Chamber of Commerce, he’s providing guidance and support for Europeans investing in Southwest Florida. And as the euro continues to gain strength against the U.S. dollar, he expects to see interest grow.

1. What is the European Business Council?
We formed the European Business Council in June 2005 [as] part of the Cape Coral Chamber of Commerce. We [saw a lot of] interest in Germany to open branch offices or relocate small companies here [and] to buy vacation homes here. Now, builders, real estate, mortgage [and other] companies stop by and ask, "How can you connect us to European—especially German—customers?" because the economy in Europe, especially in Germany, is very good.

2. Are you primarily interested in homebuyers?
We are interested in all kinds of people who [want] to invest here. We [want] to bring over business. We help them with business plans, we connect them to immigration lawyers, we help them with all the licensing and permitting stuff, and we connect them with other companies. We tell [German companies]: "We have a safe place here, and you can handle South and Central America [markets] from here because we have seaports and international airports [nearby], we have I-75, we have free trade zones in Cape Coral."

3. How does the European Business Council make money?
We [have] membership fees, and we do special events. We had a German Christmas Market; we renamed it to International Holiday Market, because we want to integrate more ethnic groups from Europe. The next event, [Oct. 11], will be a dragon boat festival. [The time is right because in 2011] the world championships in dragon boat racing are coming to Tampa.

4. After Sept. 11, it was harder for foreigners to visit, and many Europeans sold their homes here. Are more coming back?
More controls are in place when you come as a visitor to the United States. When you have an airport like Atlanta [with more foreign traffic], it’s easier. The non-stop flight [to Southwest Florida] at this time is LTU Airlines. It is stepping up its flights at the beginning of May, [with] five nonstop flights a week, so that means about 8,000 Germans every month coming to this region.

5. How are Europeans responding to the market economy here, especially in terms of real estate?
More requests are coming in, but not buying decisions. They think they can wait a little bit longer for prices to go down. I think by the end of 2008, the beginning of 2009, we [will] see more from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Great Britain buying homes or properties here. Many Germans sold their vacation homes when we had high prices here and they made good money, and I think now they are starting to come back and buy new vacation homes.