Cool Adventure
John Helmers, a hedge-fund manager who spent time at Citadel LLC and Tudor Investment Corp., says he would never have moved from Greenville, South Carolina to San Juan with his wife, Glenn, and three of his five children, if they hadn’t all been on board.
“When my wife said this could be a cool adventure for the family, that was the go switch,” he says. Helmers is setting up Long Focus Capital Partners LLC, a macro fund that also trades individual stocks. “Before I spent 30 percent of my time thinking about taxes, and now I don’t have to do that.”
Yet Helmers, a fit 49-year-old with close-cropped hair and a slight Southern drawl, is now spending time thinking about Puerto Rico’s poor. He’s interested in following the lead of his former boss, Paul Tudor Jones, who created the Robin Hood Foundation to fight poverty in New York City. Helmers’s wife is involved with the Foundation for Puerto Rico, an organization focused on economic development.
Real Difference
“You don’t have the same support network here as you have in the greater New York area,” Helmers says. “There’s an opportunity to make a real difference.” Yet not all the new residents have the same reflex to give back, he says. “It’s our job to get the opportunists over to our side.”
The biggest question is whether Puerto Rico’s plan will improve its economy.
“This place is in dire straits,” says Rill of Strategic Group PR. He calls the tax laws a glimmer of hope for the island. “We’re buying cars and getting office space and contributing to the economy.”
He spent about $1 million, on top of his house purchase to relocate, he says.
“It’s a slightly disturbing way to pursue economic development,” says Kim Reuben, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute in Washington, who has spent 10 years studying policy and spending by state and local governments. “There can be a multiplier effect, but you are dealing with one of the lowest- income populations in the U.S. on a per-capita basis. How much does it really help to import billionaires?”