silly way to attack Bernie. Yes, I have problems with this plan- mainly it doesn't make sense to me and it seems too good to be true- and we've seen that before in this neck of the woods. (see Space Research, Inc)
Let me point out a couple of things:
Newport is not a ski town. Jay is the ski town and it's been a ski town and nothing but for a long time.
What Stenger is doing in Newport- and I'm not happy about the opportunities for corruption in the EB-5 program) has nothing to do with pumping up the ski tourist image. It has to do with revitalizing the area and bringing in industry to the town in the form of light aircraft manufacturing and a South Korean bio tech company as well as taking advantage of Newport's location- less than an hour and a half from Montreal and 3 hours from Boston.
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He is expanding the Jay Peak ski resort, which he co-owns, but he is also building a biomedical research firm and a window manufacturing plant, extending the runway at the local airport and rehabilitating much of the nearby town of Newport, where he lives. There, he is developing the waterfront, adding the town’s first hotel and a conference center and rebuilding an entire downtown block. He is also creating what he says is the largest indoor mountain bike park in the world and a state-of-the art tennis center.
The price tag for the entire project, which Mr. Stenger says will create 10,000 direct and indirect jobs over several years, is $865 million.
But even more unusual than the size of the undertaking is the method by which Mr. Stenger and his business partner, Ariel Quiros, are financing it. They have tapped into a federal program that gives green cards, or permanent residency, to foreigners who invest at least $500,000 in an American business — the reward for the investment is a chance at United States citizenship.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/31/us/31vermont.html?_r=0
Stenger speaks of raising almost $600 million in cash in the next three years. He talks about bringing as many as 10,000 jobs to an area economically depressed for generations. He details the plans for revamping a dilapidated block in downtown Newport, building a large hotel on the shore of Lake Memphremagog and locating two new businesses to a manufacturing campus. He speaks of upgrading the Newport State Airport and making substantial changes at the two ski resorts he owns, Jay and Burke Mountain. He outlines how the money will come from prosperous foreign investors taking part in the U.S. government’s EB-5 program that expedites the visa process in exchange for large cash investments.
“It’s not about skiing,” Stenger says at the news conference. “It’s about our team economy and the development and creation of good full-time jobs for thousands of Vermonters.”
The plan is so massive — so rapid, extensive and expansive — that it’s beyond compare in Vermont history. Stenger’s announcement grabs state, regional and national headlines, and politicians from Derby to Montpelier to Washington, from all political parties, jockey to figure out how to throw their support behind what’s officially known as the “Northeast Kingdom Economic Development Initiative.”
In the wake of Stenger’s spectacular autumn announcement, it is optimism — mostly — that courses throughout much of northern Vermont. Part of that is because it’s Bill Stenger leading the charge, a man who’s done this before. Sort of. In the last five years, Stenger quarterbacked a $250 million expansion project at Jay Peak, and the new, wider-reaching development initiative will follow much of the same game plan that reshaped a cold and tired ski mountain in northern Vermont into a vibrant four-season destination resort.
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http://www.vermontlife.com/tag/bill-stenger/
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