The state cut ties May 1 with DreamLife Retirement Resorts, but the company is hoping for another try.
“We’re pursuing every avenue we can,” said Phil Mooney of American Dream Fund I LLC — the company that proposed to build up to eight resort-style retirement centers in Vermont, funded through the federal government’s EB-5 immigrant investor program.
Two of those projects initially were approved by the state’s Agency of Commerce and Community Development through the Vermont EB-5 Regional Center. The office later rescinded approval and canceled its memorandum of understanding with ADFI, citing “material misrepresentations” in the application.
The lawyers listed on the application were not, the agency found, licensed to practice law in Florida as had been implied. Additionally, several members of the construction team were not aware they had been listed on the application and in marketing materials.
These errors not only breached the terms of the company’s partnership with the state, according to a letter of intent to cancel the arrangement sent to Mooney by Lawrence Miller, secretary of the Agency of Commerce and Community Development. “(T)hey also have caused the State to lose confidence that ADFI can perform at the level we expect of EB-5 projects in the nation’s Number One ranked regional center.”
Speaking Wednesday by phone, Brent Raymond, director of International Trade and the Vermont EB-5 Regional Center, said that without “significant changes to various aspects … this project is canceled.”
In addition to himself, Mooney said the three principle signatories on the project are Richard Beaupre of Florida and David Gervais of New York. Those are two of the three whose credentials and roles were questioned previously. Richard Parenteau, the third, currently is listed as the registered agent for at least three DreamLife corporations classified as “active” with the Vermont Secretary of State.
Mooney says he’s confident the company can bring the state around.
Mixed signals
Mooney thinks the documentation his company provided proves that there were no “misrepresentations,” only clerical errors on the part of the state and his company.
He said they’ve identified Rutland and Bennington as “ideal” locations for the first two DreamLife resorts. The communities need senior living options, he said, and part of the draw is a faster permitting process subject to less community scrutiny for this type of project.
But ADFI hasn’t bought the land or sought the permits yet.
“Everything is on hold because until we have investors, we can’t buy the land. And we don’t have an approval of the project yet, so we can’t get investors,” Mooney said.
They can’t get investors, and there appears to be some question as to whether ADFI still can present itself as an EB-5 investment company.
ADFI was required to remove any mention of Vermont from its website after the cancellation letter — a mandate with which the company complied. Raymond said the company also complied with his request that they take down a video about EB-5 in which Raymond appeared, preceded by wording with which the office was “uncomfortable.”
Raymond remains uncomfortable with the DreamLife website’s more generic framing as an EB-5 project.
“Although there is no mention of the Vermont EB-5 Regional Center that I could locate on your site pages, DreamLife, to my knowledge is not approved by the USCIS or another regional center,” Raymond wrote by email on May 17. “I don’t want there to be any confusion out there that you are an approved project still operating under the VT EB-5 Regional Center.”
Mooney said Wednesday that he did not recall receiving that email. He confirmed the company is not approved by any EB-5 program. Yet he stated firmly that the website is legitimate and held that, without reference to Vermont, it is outside Raymond’s purview.
Both Mooney and Raymond expressed surprise that a different website still refers to the DreamLife as an approved and active project through the Vermont EB-5 Regional Center. Mooney said that site is outdated, and claimed he had never seen it before it was pointed out to him Wednesday.
He then sounded fatigued when he explained the references to the Vermont projects on his current LinkedIn profile. He had been working so hard to prove to the state the project’s worth, he said, he hadn’t had time to update that social media profile.
Prospects for a dream
“I know they would like us to reconsider,” Secretary Miller said. “But that’s not on my immediate to-do list.”
Raymond echoed: “There’s been no indication that we would consider reinstating the old MOU (memorandum of understanding) or developing a new one,” he said.
Raymond explained that the long process of EB-5 applications starts with informal discussions and progresses gradually to business summaries, formal business plans and then third-party economic analysis.
But “nobody’s talking” with regard to ADFI, Raymond said.
Mooney didn’t dispute that.
“Brent is right. He and I have not had conversations about this,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean that that’s the sum total of our efforts to try to get the project back on its feet. We’re pursuing every avenue we can,” he reiterated, but declined to specify what other efforts might entail.
When Vermont canceled ADFI’s EB-5 involvement, Miller encouraged the company to pursue conventional financing for the assisted living centers.
Mooney indicated ADFI was not interested in such arrangements. His is an EB-5 company, he said. “Our purpose isn’t to build buildings. Our purpose is to get people green cards.”
While the partners remain hopeful that arrangements can be made in Vermont, he said the company is actively pursuing EB-5 financing in nearby states, including New Hampshire, Connecticut and upstate New York.
