TOP CORPORATE ATTORNEYS
CATHERINE DEBONO HOLMES Chair, Investment Capital Law Group
Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP
Catherine Debono Holmes is chair of the
Investment Capital Law Group at Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP( JMBM). She has practiced law at JMBM for 35 years and worked as a senior member of the Global Hospitality Group and Chinese Investment Group. Holmes helps real estate developers and business owners, brokers, investment advisers and investment managers raise and manage investment capital from domestic and international investors. In the last five years, she has represented over 100 real estate developers obtaining financing through the EB-5 program for hotels, multi-family and mixed use developments. She has been lead counsel on hotel and mixeduse developments and transactions, hotel management and franchise agreements and public-private hotel developments in the United States, Europe, China, South America and Asia Pacific. Holmes also represents private investment fund managers, registered securities brokerdealers and investment advisers. She is a member of the EB-5 Securities Roundtable.
WHAT TRENDS ARE YOU SEEING IN THE EB-5 INDUSTRY?
The EB-5 industry continues to mature as a financing market for job-creating projects in the United States with the adoption of better funding controls, better due diligence and better understanding of the elements of a sound EB-5 investment by both sponsors and marketing agents of EB-5 projects. Senior lenders and other financing providers are becoming more comfortable with EB-5 financing as a part of a project capital stack, which allows the financing of better quality projects. That in turn benefits EB-5 investors who depend upon the quality of their projects to obtain approval of their visas from USCIS.
HOW ARE YOU HANDLING THE ISSUE OF REDEPLOYMENT?
Recent USCIS policy guidance allows redeployment of capital for EB-5 investors, whose capital is required to remain“ at risk” for potentially 10 years or longer. We now advise sponsors that it is possible to receive repayment of their initial investment and reinvest in one or more additional investments. We still do not know how similar the new investments must be to the original investment, so we analyze multiple options and allow the EB-5 entity manager to balance the investment risks with the immigration risks in selecting the type of reinvestment. We hope that USCIS provides further guidance on this issue soon.
MICHAEL G. HOMEIER Co-founder Homeier Law PC
Michael G. Homeier practices corporate, business and securities transactional law in Los Angeles as a founding shareholder of Homeier Law PC. Homeier maintains a broadbased general corporate legal practice with an emphasis on mergers & acquisitions and business finance / securities. He is recognized for his expertise in alternative finance, including EB-5 finance, crowdfunding and cryptocurrency / blockchain initial coin offerings. As a leader of Homeier Law’ s EB-5 practice, he has led the firm in representing clients on hundreds of different EB-5 matters large and small, helping companies and projects successfully raise billions of dollars and create thousands of new U. S. jobs through the EB-5 program. He is also working to influence positive policy changes and common-sense integrity reforms to the program. Homeier received his J. D. from the University of Southern California and his B. A. from UCLA. He is licensed to practice law in California.
WHAT DO YOU THINK THE FUTURE OF THE EB-5 INDUSTRY LOOKS LIKE?
The EB-5 industry will continue shifting from China-sourced investors to involve investors from an increasingly global marketplace while it struggles with too low of a visa ceiling and unfortunately protracted processing timeframes. We expect a gradual increase in the use of crowdfunding to locate EB-5 investors as it becomes costly to market in multiple countries. Meanwhile, our firm advocates congress’ reasonable integrity reform proposals, while we seek speedier processing times, a less combative adjudication approach and increased visa numbers, which directly lead to increased investment and job creation. Finally, I would like to see smaller businesses increasingly use the program in all markets, including rural and other non-coastline states and industries in addition to real estate.
HOW ARE YOU HANDLING THE ISSUE OF REDEPLOYMENT?
We explicitly address redeployment upfront both in our offering documents as well as definitive agreements, including several options available for clients to choose from, such as predetermined rollover, new at-risk investment determined upon initial payback and mutual funds. Our firm’ s tiered approach toward redeployment gives maximum flexibility with the lowest perceived risk of liability, seeking to protect investors and their immigration goals as well as fulfilling principals’ full disclosure obligations.
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