EB-5s: Invest $500,000 to 1 million, get a visa: Is this weird?

[cali]

The EB-5 business is booming. I'm not sure why and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I suppose I should be cheering like Leahy and Sanders, but I feel some concern. EB-5 is literally taking over the economy where I live. Yes, literally.

<snip>



Bill Stenger, president of the Jay Peak Resort and a longtime leader of economic development efforts in the region, said much of the estimated $500 million to be invested in the various projects will come from foreign investors taking advantage of a special visa program encouraging them to invest their capital in the United States. The EB-5 program was just reauthorized for three more years by Congress this month.

The EB-5 program has enabled two foreign firms, South Korean biotech firm AnC Bio, and Menck Window Systems, a German-based maker of high-end energy-efficient windows, to plan to open plants in Newport. Together with a hotel and conference center planned for the shores of Newport’s Lake Memphremagog by 95-year-old Burlington developer Antonio Pomerleau, the projects are expected to revitalize a community that has seen tough times in recent decades, despite its spectacular setting on a large lake that extends into Quebec.

‘‘We believe this undertaking will fundamentally alter the economic landscape of the Northeast Kingdom and how the international business community views this region of Vermont,’’ Stenger said.


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http://www.necn.com/09/27/12/Major-revitalization-project-announced-f/landing_business.html?blockID=780357&feedID=11126

Why on earth would you plan to do this high biotech thing here in the Northeast Kingdom? It's not like there's a large pool of educated workers. And they're talking about how this will provide 5,000 jobs. That's good and all but this is an area with very limited housing. The population of the town is about 5,000 and the outlying areas are really rural consisting of small villages with populations largely in the hundreds. The closest real city is Montreal. It's right smack dab on the border. The closest institution of higher learning is a state college 40 minutes away.

Maybe I'm being slightly paranoid here, but I don't get it. I can understand what Stenger has done at Jay Peak (adding an ice rink, a state of the art indoor water park,golf course, conference center, etc) but this just seems... I don't know, a weird fit for the Kingdom.

It will be- by far- the largest revitalization/ economic investment project in Vermont history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newport_%28city%29,_Vermont

The Northeast Kingdom is bisected by Interstate 91/U.S. 5. On the east it is bordered by the Connecticut River. The highest point is Jay Peak at 3,858 feet (1,176 m).[1]

The Kingdom encompasses 55 towns and gores, with a land area of 2,027 square miles (5,250 km2), about 21% of the state of Vermont.[2] The city of Newport is the single incorporated city in the tri-county area.

As of 1997, 80% of the Northeast Kingdom was covered by forest.[3] 59% was northern hardwood, 29% spruce or fir.

The Northeast Kingdom has been listed in the North American and international editions of "1,000 Places to See Before You Die", the New York Times best-selling book by Patricia Schultz. In 2006, the National Geographic Society named the Northeast Kingdom as the most desirable place to visit in the country and the ninth most desirable place to visit in the world.[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Kingdom

[dipsydoodle]

1. Something similar

was available at least as far back as 1981 - Investors Visa which at the time required an investment of c. $200k. One of my pals bought a motel in Clearwater FL and got his green card that way.

[cali]

2. well, the EB-5 program dates from 1990

but there probably was something that it superseded.

If this was about something like a motel, I wouldn't find it puzzling but this is just huge and strange. The project seems to not fit the area or the employee pool.

[dipsydoodle]

4. Yes - I can see the difference.

In the instance I quoted, yes, it was just a friend and his wife - self employed. They did all the cleaning etc themselves as they couldn't afford staff. I fully understand what you mean about the area to which you referred and the employee pool - does seem odd.

There's always an angle in situations like this. Chances are that someone somewhere is making huge bucks out of making such arrangements especially given it will allow foreigners , and I don't mean that disrespectfully, into the US effectively unmanaged.

I've another friend getting his green card the clean way - he's been in the US a while sorting that. His partner/girlfriend from at least the 18 years I've known them is from CA and because he's UK has been unable to stay for more than 90 days continuous when visiting her children. They're dance teachers and with retirement looming / theoretically passed they'll have more time on their hands now to flit to and fro.

[cali]

7. funny, you mention that- and I'm not suggesting that it's true in the case

in the OP- but I just read that Homeland Security is investigating the program.

One person who is making big bucks out of this is the guy behind it- Bill Stenger who heads the consortium that owns Jay Peak and Burke Mountain. I've actually heard good things about him from people who know him or work for him for years- including my son who used to work at Jay.

It's just I don't get how you could start an operation as sophisticated as growing artificial organs here, plus I've never forgotten another big employer up here in the boondocks. Vermont farm boys traveling the world selling mega guns. It was very bizarre:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Research_Corporation

[aquart]

3. Isn't that how Murdoch bought his citizenship?

Or was it a more direct contribution?

[cali]

5. No. He had a media empire here

for years before he became a citizen. And he became a citizen years before the EB-5 program was started. Pretty easy to get citizenship, I imagine, if you own a hunk of the media.

He is, I just discovered, a big backer of the EB-5 program.

[dipsydoodle]

6. That's lost in the mists of time

but a good allusion all the same.

I'd go with a "more direct contribution"

off topic but I did read once that the background to US intervention in Chile pre - 1973 was based on ITT making it clear that they expected intervention to protect their copper interests and in its absense would withdraw funding to the Republican Party.