Only the ever-ringing telephones give hint of the company’s importance as a nerve center for commercial and industrial real estate in Puerto Rico. E-Mail:johnfranciscus@hotmail.com        A conversation with company President John Allen Franciscus gives rise to the question of when is there time for the work.  The man is a whirling dervish of stories, adventures, and ideas.  But in the50 years since Franciscus Real Estate began, Franciscus has remained central to the success of the company.  “We’ve reinvented ourselves several times,” he says.

“We deal with Fortune 500 companies who expect a certain level of expertise.”  To gain that expertise, Franciscus and staff had to study stateside to earn certification from the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR) and they took all 5 CCIM courses.  The training has paid off.  The company now lists major pharmaceutical and manufacturing companies as clients.

“We’re the first SIOR member in the Caribbean,” Franciscus says.  “We have our own website, www.franciscus.com.”

That willingness to reinvent has created a company that ranks No. 193 in the 1999 Caribbean Business Top 300 list of largest locally owned businesses.  The rating is based on 1997 revenue, which was $20 million for Franciscus. 

Born to the pioneer Franciscus family of St. Louis, John and his brother James (later to earn fame as a Hollywood actor) were educated at Taft and Yale.  John then spent a year training as a single-engine fighter pilot with the Air Force.  Out of the Air Force and into the job market, the young married man got an interview with Nelson Rockefeller.  The resulting job offer was to work for Rockefeller’s International Basic Economy Corporation (IBEC) in Puerto Rico.

IBEC’s , mission was simple:  Take American know how into underdeveloped countries and set up the basic industries of housing and food distribution.  Franciscus arrived starry-eyed, ready to carry the flag and do good.

He began with IBEC in 1958 as a trainee.  At that time, Lawrence Rockefeller of Rock Resorts was developing the former Claire Livingston sugar plantation in Dorado.  He borrowed Franciscus to help lay out and price the one-acre lots designed to rim the planned golf course.

Franciscus left IBEC and started Franciscus Real Estate.  Along the way, Franciscus would be drawn back to his first dream of helping undeveloped countries, a dream that has led to adventures all over the Caribbean.  He started with the Dominican Republic and wrote the book Dominican Opportunity.  Franciscus’s reasoning was to attract business; entrepreneurs needed a guide for what to expect. 

Two weeks after the book was published, the Dominican Republic erupted in a political revolution.  Franciscus became the quotable expert on the D.R. He flew i9n the first newsman,jules du Bois  of the Chicago Tribune in hius own plane.The next day dogging  the DRs p51s , Franciscus flew in John Barnes of Newsweek and Nick Valeriani of CBS.The story he flew out  scooped the world and Pres. Johnson's speech announcing that  the USA had sent in the 82nd Airborne  to stop a communist takeover.

Expeditions  laterto Haiti triggered a similar interest there.  Since one of the most marketable aspects of that country is its art, Franciscus made it part of the focus of his next book:  Haiti: Voodoo Kingdom to Modern Riviera.  The book covers Haiti’s history and paintings, and offers a guide to it.  To reproduce the paintings, he was forced to buy them.  And so began his wonderful and now valuable collection of Haitian art.  He started with the Coles family, one of the largest transformation industries in the country.

Today, Franciscus employs 8-12 people.  He attributes his core of loyal brokers to the fact that we are always learning new things (including the computer) and the unusual commission structure. 

After $35,000, the commission split is 60/40 and at $50,000, the salesperson is earning 70% of the commission. 

“We’ve got women in here earning $150,000 to $180,000 a year.  That’s great.  All the good people have never left.'Franciscus also is former president of the Santurce Rotary Club, involved in a “Think Tank” on public policy, founder of the Yale Club of Puerto Rico, director of the Navy League, and active with the Braille Center.  His next book, The Last Frontier, is a story of the golden age of Puerto Rico from the 1950’s onward.Available July 2007.

     We have to earn our wings every day.In June 2007 we reduced our staff and downsized.We now only work on industrial buildings That we have hand picked.JAF