Something from 1987, googling "Lorenz Reibling":
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE6DD1F3BF935A15754C0A961948260
COMMERCIAL PROPERTY: Foreign Developers; Learning Just How the Game Is Played in the States
By MARK MCCAIN Published: July 26, 1987
EIGHT years ago, Brazil's largest development company, Gomes de Almeida, Fernandes, selected Manhattan for its first overseas outpost. Next month, the company will complete its first Manhattan building - a narrow, granite-and-glass tower at 590 Fifth Avenue, near 48th Street.
It is one of the smallest new office buildings in Manhattan, and it illustrates the caution that most foreign developers bring to the United States.
''Our strategic plan has been to learn how the Manhattan market works - slowly, without taking big risks,'' said Cid Keller, director of Manhattan Equities, the company's subsidiary in the United States. ''Everything about the way we do real estate in Brazil is completely different than here - the tax aspects, the construction, the ownership. Ninety-nine percent of our office buildings in Brazil are condos.''
Before beginning construction of the $30 million Fifth Avenue tower, Manhattan Equities restricted itself to buying existing office buildings, in partnership with other investors. Today, its Manhattan portfolio includes five buildings, each with less than 150,000 square feet of space. Within local real-estate circles, the company is considered a small, respected player.
''They're very honorable people,'' said Barry Gosin, an executive vice president of Newmark & Company Real Estate, a company that has leased space for Manhattan Equities. ''Once they were a few weeks late in paying a commission, and they gave me interest. In New York, that's so atypical it's ridiculous.''
Not surprisingly, foreign developers who most frequently do their own projects come from England and Canada, where language, culture, business style and financial markets mirror those of the United States. Japanese developers are emerging as a major force within the American real-estate market, but few have operated independently so far.
Within recent years, developers from other countries have established profitable niches in the United States, building office towers, hotels and a multitude of other projects. But casualties are high.
''I know of many more failures than successes,'' said Lorenz Reibling, who came from West Germany a decade ago to establish a development company in Florida. ''Very often, foreign entities are overwhelmed by the abundance of opportunity. And they underestimate the likelihood of failure.
''We are learning by trial and error,'' added Mr. Reibling, president of Taurus Investment Group, which buys and builds office buildings, warehouses and residential complexes. ''We develop a concept to the point of funding. Then we approach joint-venture partners in Germany, Switzerland and Italy who supply the equity and credit.''
FROM its first foray into Florida eight years ago to buy a hotel for $4 million, Taurus has advanced to such projects as a $27 million residential development in Boca Raton. ''We have remained in southern Florida because each local market has different rules and different players,'' said Mr. Reibling. ''There's a lot we still have to learn right here.''
Although Gomes de Almeida, Fernandes is a vastly larger company, it operates with similar geographical constraint within the United States.
Across Brazil, the company has built more than 330 commercial and residential projects since 1954, totaling more than 40 million square feet of space. But in Manhattan, it has not strayed north of 59th Street.
In the next few years, the company intends to expand those self-imposed boundaries only slightly. ''We have eight projects in the works in the New York area,'' said Mr. Keller, who arrived from Brazil eight months ago, when Gomes de Almeida, Fernandes more than doubled its staff in Manhattan to 18.
The biggest project being planned is the $636 million Hudson River Center, proposed for a 13-acre platform west of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. Earlier this year, the city designated a team that includes Manhattan Equities and Julien J. Studley, a real-estate investor, as the site's developer.
(there is a second page)
sKally
