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September 21, 2010
Atlantic Yards to Bribe Foreign Investors With Green Cards
Curbed
Developer Bruce Ratner is flying to China next month, but he's not searching for the next Yao Ming. More like the next ch-ching! Now that the Barclays Center arena is under construction and the Nets are on their way, Ratner is onto the next phase of Brooklyn's beloved Atlantic Yards megaproject: Those 16 or so towers, the first of which is scheduled to break ground sometime in 2011. ...
With an arena built with Russian money and other parts of the project funded by the Chinese, Atlantic Yards is shaping up to be quite the international buffet!
Related coverage...
National Review Online, Green Card Sale — Half Off!
In the case of Atlantic Yards, the developers need $249 million, which means that 498 wealthy Chinese will be able to buy green cards for themselves, or for anyone else. As a Chinese businessman quoted in Oder’s story says, “It is time for me to buy a good future for my son.” Here, too, left and right should find common ground in opposing a policy that gives the rich an easy path to a green card, especially when no skills or knowledge are required and the recipient doesn’t even need to have a job or speak English.
If we’re going to sell residency permits, the honest way would be to simply auction them off to the highest bidder. But the EB-5 program is a bad idea for other reasons. First of all, when the government creates a non-economic incentive for investment, such as a green card, capital will be allocated less efficiently; and second, the calculations that show how your $500K bought ten jobs may be no more reliable than the “jobs created or saved” by the various stimulus bills. Still, real-estate developers love EB-5, and politicians love real-estate developers; so we can expect to see an ever-growing number of well-off Chinese immigrants who understand that if you have enough money, you can always advance to the front of the line.
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, Get a Green Card for Less Than the Price of One Luxury Suite at Ratner's Barclays Center Arena
That's correct. Short on money for his Atlantic Yards megaproject, Bruce Ratner is, once again, questionably utilizing an obscure federal program for a bailout from (probably) Chinese investors.
How? By using the government to sell green cards. (Just like he used the government to steal people's homes and businesses.)
Gothamist, Bruce Ratner To Lure Atlantic Yards Investors With Green Cards
Used to boost investment in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the EB-5 visa has been called an "interesting and clever way to provide financing." The program offers permanent residency to foreigners investing between $500,000 and $1 million in American businesses and projects, and now that the last holdout is gone, Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner is looking to use it to his advantage.
...What about using it to get kids off the damn mall?
Brownstoner, Atlantic Yards Milking Green Card Loophole to Attract Chinese Investors?
According to Atlantic Yards Report, Ratner's going to be headed out on a dog-and-pony show to China to get a few hundred wealthy Chinese to cough up a million bucks apiece to finance Atlantic Yards. What do they get in return? A green card!
Brooklynian, Chinese to get green cards for Atlantic Yards investment?
Image: Curbed
Posted by eric at September 21, 2010 6:52 PM