This may sound odd for us to be saying as we are the ones putting these attributes forward but is just saying you have knowledge and experience enough such that someone should put their trust in you? By this we mean, someone could have knowledge and that same person could have experience but does either or both of these translate into success? Isn’t it a combination of knowledge, experience and success that you should be looking for? AIM delivers on all three of these.
The principles of AIM have worked with over 5,400 EB-5 investors which translates into over $2.7 billion in EB-5 capital that was successfully raised. The principles of AIM have established relationships throughout the world. As a developer, aren’t you seeking an awareness of your project to be as broad in the world as possible as compared to having fundraising efforts to be dependent upon one region or one referral source? As an investor, don’t you want investors from around the world to review the EB-5 investment opportunity you are considering as differing investors bring differing perspectives?
AIM’s goal is to work with highly experienced developers seeking to add value to an already well planned project by incorporating EB-5 investment capital into the financing plan of their project. The right developer needs to think beyond their measurement of success though as this developer needs to understand what is needed from them and their project in order to attain success for the EB-5 investors. Not that the developer has a direct relationship with these EB-5 petitioners rather recognizing that the immigration success of the EB-5 petitioners is dependent upon the project meeting its objectives and obligations.
Knowledge and experience alone do not always translate into success. The EB-5 industry, as a whole, has many failures. The shortcomings to many of these failures were recognizable. History has a way of repeating itself. This is not to say that anyone can guarantee success but rather to say failure is much easier to achieve if you approach something with no real knowledge, no real experience and no record of success in similar past endeavors.
AIM’s goal is to assist developers such that they achieve the success they are seeking, while at the same time, delivering the success that is so desperately being sought by prospective EB-5 investors.
AIM has negotiated favorable costs of capital with several regional centers such that the services of AIM come at little, to no, overall cost to the developer as compared to the developer seeking EB-5 funding absent the services of AIM. This is a very bold statement and one that we would gladly provide proof of to you. Additionally, and all too often, developers are lured towards establishing their own regional centers with the promise of near free money from immigrants seeking only a green card. (Remember the old adage: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.) This does not mean that EB-5 funding is not attractive, it just means that EB-5 funding needs to be approached properly and given the proper perspective.
EB-5 funding works best as an alternative for mezzanine financing or additional outside equity. There are reasons for this and they relate mostly to job creation and overall costs associated with the components of a developer’s capital stack.
Depending upon the manner in which EB-5 funding is approached there can be known costs as well as unknown costs.
When a developer borrows money for their project the costs associated with the loan are clearly identified in a loan agreement. Now compare this approach to trying to raise that same amount incrementally from individuals you have no prior relationship with and these individuals are not seeking “return on investment” or “capital preservation” as their primary motivations, rather they are seeking United States permanent residence under an obscure and closely scrutinized US immigration program. And, as a requirement of that program they must submit hundreds or even thousands of pages of documents, they must undergo background checks, health screening, in-person interviews, conditional permanent residence, a final submission of additional documentation and all the while much of what is critical to their success is out of their control and in the hands of the regional center and the developer of the project that serves as the Job Creating Entity (JCE).
A little research, by an inquiring developer, will clearly show that there are a multitude of regional centers that have never undertaken a single EB-5 project or they have never been able to successfully raise capital for a developer’s own project.
Numerous developers have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars chasing the lure of cheap EB-5 capital when in reality all they were looking for is an attractive form of alternative capital that blends in well with their already established financing plan. (There is another old adage: Look before you leap.)
The goal of AIM is not to talk you out of establishing a regional center or out of working with others. Our goal is to show to you and explain to you that you have options that others may not be making you aware of.
It is nearly impossible to speak to any one aspect of the EB-5 industry without overlapping other aspects of the EB-5 industry. As a developer, and unless you have already successfully operated your own regional center for years and you have successfully brought multiple EB-5 investors through the entire immigration and investment process, do you want to be in the position of responsibility for more than what would be contained in a mere loan agreement? In our section on Cost Effectiveness comes the following when comparing obtaining capital via a loan to capital being raised under a developer’s own regional center:
Now compare this approach to trying to raise that same amount incrementally from individuals you have no prior relationship with and these individuals are not seeking “return on investment” or “capital preservation” as their primary motivations, rather they are seeking United States permanent residence under an obscure and closely scrutinized US immigration program. And, as a requirement of that program they must submit hundreds or even thousands of pages of documents, they must undergo background checks, health screening, in-person interviews, conditional permanent residence, a final submission of additional documentation and all the while much of what is critical to their success is out of their control and in the hands of the regional center and the developer of the project that serves as the Job Creating Entity (JCE).
No developer undertakes every aspect of a construction project. They turn to others that have greater expertise and these others can get the job done in a cost effective manner such that the developer’s project gets completed in a timely manner.
The approach to EB-5 funding is no different. When a developer is seeking traditional financing for a project, is that developer being told to establish a bank and then operate that bank and then operate the bank in compliance with all kinds of rules and regulations the developer has never heard of? That would be foolish. So then why are so many developers guided towards establishing a regional center when in reality all the developer is seeking is an alternative source of capital that compliments the needs of their project?
Ask us about what we do best and decide for yourself if what AIM does makes sense in what you are hoping to accomplish.
