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inner city investment nothing is easy. For us, EB-5 didn’t seem
to have any more challenges than any other tool. It did seem to
scare people away because of the lengthy approval process and
because of immigration. Since it has been used mostly for big
real estate projects, not everyone thinks about utilizing it for
other types of projects.
Then there’s obviously all of the uncertainty around the approval
process. I think for some people it is so difficult just getting all
the right players together, and then it ultimately could not be
approved for funding. That seems like a scary prospect.
The other thing we found is that it is a pretty small field and
there aren’t that many people that have the knowledge of EB-5.
Not everyone will have access to the right experts or know how
to find them, so there is that barrier as well.
CC: Can you discuss your recommendations that you came
to at the end the report, and who you see as having a role in
helping enact them?
KZ: We have three main recommendations. The first one was
to develop an educational campaign about using EB-5 as a
tool for impact investing in inner cities. We really think the
economic development profession, potentially in partnership
with organizations like yours, other trade associations, the
public sector, and foundations, should help educate people
about EB-5 and how it can be used in the inner city. Data is part
of that, making sure that somebody is tracking these projects.
Our total report is about 40 pages, but what most people have
requested is the table at the back with the list of projects. We
need somebody to collect more of that data. That’s obviously
something that ICIC is interested in. If the public sector can’t
do that, it means having a non-profit or somebody who’s really
unbiased start to track these projects, start to learn from them,
and start to track what kind of jobs are being created.
The second recommendation was building this nexus of EB-5
experts, just getting to that point of “Okay, we want to do
something with EB-5, now what?” Whether it’s some type of
roster, or just different people that we could point people to in
different inner cities and make sure they’re connected to some
reliable EB-5 professionals.
The third recommendation was—and this was geared towards
the foundations and the public sector and some of the
economic development coporations—that they should be
out there identifying and investing in the projects and maybe
supporting regional centers or partnering with regional centers.
But I think, after the event, I would reframe the third item
as really helping to develop a robust pipeline of projects. They
know the projects; if they can get more information from the
developers and what they’re looking for, they can help present
the right opportunities. So building that robust pipeline, and
when necessary, providing s ome direct investment in it to make
them more attractive opportunities.
★
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Bell Nunnally is proud to represent some of the most esteemed
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EB-5 investment and immigration process.
To learn more about Bell Nunnally’s EB-5 team, please contact:
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