From the day he arrived in the city in 1954 until the day he died two weeks ago at age 84, Helmut Langer believed in Prince George and what it had to offer.
As a real estate developer he had great success building subdivisions and financing mortgages for people who couldn't get loans from banks. His motto was, a dollar down and a dollar a day, and with every deal he made, his reputation for generosity and compassion grew.
Concentrating on the Hart area in the north end of city, Langer's housing developments -- such as Glenview Estates, South Kelly Gardens, North Kelly Estates, Fraser Vista Estates, Ingala Heights, Valleyview and Anderson subdivisions -- still bear the names he gave them, as do the 50 Prince George streets he named.
Helmut Langer was 27 and already conditioned as a workaholic when he came to Prince George, suitcase in hand as an immigrant from Cologne, Germany. He struggled to learn English in his new country but with the help of former alderman Elroy Garden and Sacred Heart Catholic church Langer found work in one of the many sawmills and also took on a job as a bartender in the Prince George Hotel. He also spent 10 years working in the produce department for Kelly Douglas food store before he became an entrepreneur.
Women were scarce at the time he arrived in Prince George and for nearly two years he sent letters back to Germany to woo his future wife Inge, who lived in the same apartment complex as Langer's parents. His long-distance proposal on Christmas Eve was accepted when Langer father presented Inge with an engagement ring, and she came to Canada in 1956. They raised four sons in Prince George -- Doug, Gordon, Mike and Rick -- and lived in the city until 1985, when they moved to Duncan.
When Helmut started his own business in 1967 land was cheap and the big developers from the big cities weren't interested in Prince George. "A big company like Carma Developers Ltd., didn't come here earlier because the land prices were too low here," he said, in a Nov. 14, 1977 Citizen article. "In order to compete, a person has to sell land at a lower price than the city."
And that's exactly what Langer did. He cut sweetheart deals with landowners by guaranteeing them the chance to name streets after themselves of their family members.
Being from Germany, where populations were concentrated and land came at a premium, owning your own property was a big deal to Langer. His family had a history as land developers dating back to the 1600s and Canada had land in abundance. It was permanent, indestructible, and marketable, and he wanted others to have that feeling of being homeowners.
His timing was impeccable. With construction of the pulp mills in full swing and the economy cooking with a healthy lumber industry, people were flocking to the city and needed affordable places to live. Before he got into pricier homes on one-acre lots in Valleyview, Langer focused on selling manufactured homes in trailer parks and his business thrived.
"The city was growing in the '70 and '80s and all the [competing] trailer parks were ticked off at him because he showed people they could pay the same amount as they were paying in rent and have your own piece of land," said Helmut's oldest son, Doug Langer.
In the early 70s a 160-acre parcel of land could be bought $200 per acre. It would cost him between $25,000 and $35,000 to subdivide those quarter-sections into five-acre lots, which he sold five years later for $15,000 each. But profits weren't all that that motivated him.
"I do it for the challenge, the sense of accomplishment," he told Citizen reporter Eli Sopow in 1977. "I like to drive by one of my subdivisions and watch a house going up. I've always been reasonable with my prices, never charging more than a normal mark-up in a corner grocery store."
Langer was known for generosity, striking deals with young couples and then after the paperwork was signed, knocking $500 off the price.
"To this day, people come up to me and talk about the first land they bought from Dad up in the Hart," said son Gordon Langer. "He was very well -liked. He was so pro-Prince George. He made his livelihood up here and he made land affordable to all."
With Gordon overseeing the family's Glenview Estates development company, which at its height had holdings eight Prince George subdivisions, Helmut and Doug began a importing and distribution business on Vancouver Island that proved equally successful, marketing such items as the Cutie Clown, which became a million-seller. He loved the internet and eBay and how it helped fuel his passion for stamp collecting.
Helmut developed bone cancer and fought it for five years before he died peacefully with his family by his side on July 15. A memorial service will be held today at 10 a.m. at Sacred Heart Cathedral Church, 887 Patricia Blvd.
