News
EB-5 AND YOUR CAPITAL STACK
March 22, 2012
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| Over breakfast yesterday, the Real Estate Investment Association held "EB-5 Raising Foreign Investment Capital for US Real Estate" that explored how US companies can make the federal government’s EB-5 program work for them. Panelists: Chicagoland Foreign Investment Group executive director Taher Kameli, Gorman and Co developer Gary Gorman, Baker Tilly principal Michael Fitzpatrick, and Behar Law Group EB-5 immigration attorney Larry Behar. Moderating were Pathway Senior Living principal James Keledjian and Aries Capital CEO Neil Freeman. (Can you tell which one is which?) EB-5 encourages foreign investment in the US, with a $500k minimum, through the issuance of permanent green cards to investors in qualified projects that produce permanent jobs—assisted living developments, for example. The main take away: Using EB-5 is complex and can be time-consuming, but if done correctly, it can be a part of a development project's capital stack. | |
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| Peter Joseph, who heads the Association to Invest in the USA, the lobbying group for the EB-5 industry, told us his organization's main concern at the moment is to get the law extended by Congress this year. Odds of that are looking good, as the program has picked up in popularity in recent years—most of 10,000 permanent visas set aside each year for the program are now being taken. The country with the largest number of takers is China. |
