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December 9, 2010
Anatomy of a Green Card Pitch: In China, Atlantic Yards Backers Rely on the Distraction of Basketball
The Huffington Post
by Norman Oder
Norman Oder somehow finds the time to repackage his EB-5 series for The Huffington Post.
The controversial Atlantic Yards megaproject in Brooklyn, involving a basketball arena for the relocating New Jersey Nets plus 16 planned towers, has already gotten a boost from Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who last year bought 80% of the team and 45% of the arena, known as the Barclays Center.
But the next astounding step for Brooklyn developer Forest City Ratner (FCR)--which has already benefited from eminent domain, significant subsidies, a naming rights giveaway, and tax breaks--involves raising a $249 million interest-free loan from 498 Chinese millionaires seeking green cards.
The effort tests the spirit, and perhaps the letter, of an obscure federal immigration program known as EB-5, which trades immigration benefits for purportedly job-creating investments--as little as $500,000 per family.
In October, I wrote here about the emerging plan to use the program. Now, as suggested in the ongoing Anatomy of a Shady Deal series on my Atlantic Yards Report blog, it seems the benefit would tilt significantly to the developer rather than to the public or even the investors.
Posted by eric at December 9, 2010 5:28 PM