Market shift

Irina Prell never shrinks from a challenge.

As a 24-year-old accountant, Prell came to the U.S. from Russia in 1999 barely able to speak English. “I'd never been outside Russia before,” she says.

Today, Prell owns and operates Elysium Construction, a homebuilding and renovation company that managed to survive through the boom and bust of recent years. That included shifting from multimillion-dollar home construction on exclusive Captiva Island to foreclosures in Cape Coral.