Bill Stenger is not only the driver of the Regional Center’ s most high-profile project, but he was also instrumental in its origin story. In the late 1990s, after hearing about the Canadian immigrant investor program from visitors to the resort, Stenger approached then-Secretary of Commerce Bill Shouldice and then-Governor Howard Dean about bringing the U. S. EB-5 program to Vermont. As Stenger tells it, both Shouldice and Dean were receptive, recognized the potential of the program, and set off to Washington, D. C. to learn more. After meetings and countless hours of deliberations, the Vermont EB-5 Regional Center was born. At that time, it was the only government-operated regional center in the United States, and it would remain that way for many years.
Though not administratively affiliated with the Regional Center, Stenger and his company work closely with the center to develop EB-5 projects in the state of Vermont. Before any projects can go to market with a Vermont EB-5 Regional Center affiliation, the state’ s Department of Commerce and their associated EB-5 experts must approve them. In addition to Stenger’ s Jay Peak, the regional center works with about half a dozen other EB-5 projects in the state. Under the guidance of Brent Raymond, director of the regional center, the state provides oversight, ongoing reviews, and pre-approval of projects, according to their website. While EB-5 investors see green cards as their primary goal,“ above all else, the state and federal authorities are interested in the job creation. The visas are provided as a benefit to creating the jobs,” says Stenger.
This thorough review lends an air of credibility when taking projects to a market full of investors who highly value certainty in their investments. And while the Vermont EB-5 Regional Center can offer no more guarantee than any other regional center, Stenger has seen how a government affiliation can boost investor confidence. Vermont EB-5 Regional Center officials, and other state officials, have repeatedly travelled abroad to promote EB-5 in conjunction with project developers. All that international travel gets expensive, however, and while“ traditional” regional center principals can reach into their coffers and write off the expense as a cost of doing business, a state-run agency accountable to taxpayers has a little more difficulty doing so. In order to harness the true marketing power of in-person state support, Stenger has funded travel for state delegations in the past. According to Hillary Nies at the Vermont Digger— EB-5 is a regular feature in local press— Stenger fronted $ 100,000 for a recent promotional trip to Asia attended by Gov. Peter Shumlin.
In the same article, Nies details the financial structure of the regional center. While legislation allows the regional center to assess a $ 1,500 fee per investor, to cover administrative costs, the fee is not charged until the investor receives their green card, leaving the account balance lagging behind promotional needs. Careful of spending taxpayer money, Raymond and his team are still working out the nuances of who should be responsible for promotional travel, but for now, it’ s up to the projects. It is clear that the state-run regional center is not lining its pockets with the sum of per-investor administrative fees, and Stenger underlines that direct revenue is not the point of the operation,“ I think that our state government sees the EB-5 program as, very simply,‘ Let’ s create jobs.’ The people who have those jobs are taxpayers in the state of Vermont, so the benefit is going to be: the more jobs that are created by EB-5, the more taxpayers there are in the state of Vermont.”
Despite the success of the Vermont EB-5 Regional Center, Stenger is hesitant to recommend the model to the rest of the country:“ I know what has worked for us, I know what fits right for Vermont. But every state is not like Vermont, and I would not necessarily recommend that other state governments do this because the administrative reality other states may be different. We’ ve benefited from this, others perhaps could, but I would leave that up to the individual states to decide.” The state of Michigan, however, is testing its luck; the State of Michigan EB-5 Regional Center was approved by USCIS in late March 2014, according to the office of Gov. Rick Snyder. It is yet to be seen how Michigan will operate the country’ s second EB-5 public-private partnership and what new benefits foreign investors will bring to the state.
With a small, mostly rural population, and heavily involved state representatives, it seems that Vermont and EB-5 were made for one another. Stenger, for one, is happy with the relationship,“ We are held accountable for what we do, and I guess some people might say,‘ Well, gee, I don’ t want the state looking over my shoulder,’ but I don’ t mind that. There’ s nothing wrong with being held to a high standard, and we don’ t run from that.”
Ever the Vermont patriot, Stenger is a champion of the rural character of the EB-5 program and would like to see the butfor-this-source-of-funds concept of the program preserved. As he sees it, the program was originally intended to provide a source of funding for projects that would otherwise not have access to capital,“ We could not have done what we’ ve done at Jay Peak were it not for this program.” According to Stenger, at least in Vermont,“ The EB-5 program is really something that every elected official can embrace.”
★ www. EB5Investors. com 43