On New York's waterfront, the rebirth of the old Brooklyn Navy Yard has a novel financing scheme: green cards.
Credit crunch be damned, trucks and Caterpillars zigzag across a once-thriving industrial park that fell to neglect in the last century.
The revitalisation is in full swing, as witnessed by the solar- and wind-powered lampposts and the modern roads that end at the rusty bones of former shipbuilding warehouses.
George Olsen looks on like a proud papa. He and his business partners are lending US$60 million at low interest to the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation.
'That's EB-5 dollars at work,' says Olsen, nodding to workers who are digging a ditch outside Building 128, an aged steel hulk to be re-invented as a light manufacturing plant.
EB-5 is the United States visa programme that provided the incentive for the mostly Chinese investors to wire the money. At its heart, it's a simple concept: pay US$500,000 and get permanent residency for the whole family. It's layered with contingencies, though. The investment must create at least 10 jobs in two years for the green card to become permanent. It must also be made in a rural or underemployed area, or else the cost of entry is doubled.
