Bill Stenger announces a $500 million investment in Northeast Kingdom developments. Photo by Anne Galloway
Gov. Peter Shumlin will travel to Miami on Thursday and Friday to encourage investment in the state’s Northeast Kingdom via the EB-5 visa investment program, accompanied by Jay Peak Resort president and co-owner Bill Stenger.
Shumlin and Stenger will be pitching an elaborate set of projects to scores of immigration attorneys and wealthy investors, with many foreign investors from Central America and South America, according to Stenger.
“I’ll be going on the road with them to assure investors that when they have choices about what EB-5 program to choose across America – and there’s a lot of them – they ought to choose this program in the Kingdom,” Shumlin said at a Burlington press conference on Monday.
He touted the $500 million Northeast Kingdom project as having a “track record of delivering value to investors” adding: “We’re the only statewide EB-5 program in the nation. We’re the only EB-5 program where the state acts as a sort of auditor in the program, which gives investors added confidence that they’re investing in something that is real.”
Started in 1990, the federal EB-5 program requires foreigners to invest $1 million into American economic development, and create at least 10 full-time jobs, in return for a green card.
Vermont’s variation of the program allows investors to contribute a minimum $500,000, plus administrative fees, and to provide a combination of both direct and indirect jobs. Indirect jobs include jobs created as a result of a project, as opposed to “actual identifiable jobs” paid for by project managers, according to a 2011 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service report to Congress.
Vermont’s regional EB-5 center, which approves and reviews suitable investment projects, is the only such center in the nation owned and operated by a state government.
Stenger, the private sector developer of the $500 million in projects, told VTDigger that the governor’s two days in Florida could net about $25 million to $50 million in total future investment.
“We can probably meet with attorneys or investors that would represent anywhere between 50 to 100 investors,” said Stenger. “It could range from $25 million to $50 million of total investment.”
But, he cautioned: “We won’t come back from Florida with checks. But we will have met people we’ll follow up with, who have serious interest, and who will ultimately wind up working with us.”
This isn’t the first time Shumlin has helped out Stenger by speaking at similar events and meetings, according to the Jay Peak exec, who said the governor promoted EB-5 with him in South Florida just over a year ago.
“The governor has been very gracious in his support,” said Stenger. “It’s very effective, what he’s able to bring to an event like this. Vermont has a great deal of credibility in the EB-5 community, in no small part because we have support from our elected officials and our local officials.”
On Thursday evening the pair plan an evening reception for 75 to 100 attorneys and investors who are “seriously interesting in participating” in Vermont’s regional EB-5 program. At a Friday luncheon, Shumlin will speak at an American Immigration Lawyers Association meeting, looking to spread information and enthusiasm about the EB-5 program to the clients of these immigration attorneys.
Shumlin told reporters at a press conference that his trip is being paid for by an administrative fee levied on already existing EB-5 investors, so taxpayers wouldn’t bear the cost.
Stenger said he’s raised about $300 million of a targeted $600 million so far, from about 600 investors, most of whom have already struck deals and actually delivered investment funds.
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Talk about compartmentalization! A week ago, legislative business stopped in its tracks, and Bill McKibben ascended the Speaker’s podium to tell us we needed to change our ways (and also blast off our mountaintops) to cope with global climate change. Now, a week later, our Governor is off to Florida to pitch a huge development project that will further erode our mountain ecology, with Act 250′s blessing I presume. Oh, well, back to business as usual.
We are reversing what John Mitchell once said, “Watch what we do, not what we say.” Here in Vermont, it’s “listen to what we say, don’t watch what we do.”
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‘water water everywhere and not a drop to drink’
money money anywhere transferred with a nod and a wink.
Wealth rules and ironies abound. The longer we live the more we see the ironies as they are woven into the fabric of the two party system, eh Mr. Post? Money buys; what it buys is not always good for the people.
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So while undocumented Mexicans cower on Vermont dairy farms, Shumlin is out there recruiting big fat human wallets. Of course the human wallets are required to pay bribes which enrich people like Stenger.
Oops, lost the script: Let’s see, man of the people, lots of jobs first, then Stenger gets rich.
Open you hymnals to page EB-5:
“Give me your tanned, your rich, Your huddled plutocrats yearning to breathe free.”
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EB-5 is exploding nationwide — I wonder who else is actively & aggresively pursuing this on the same scale Stenger has been. I know Michigan has a similar effort to Vermont’s underway.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-07/buying-u-s-green-card-more-popular-than-ever-chart-of-the-day.html