ROCK ISLAND, Ill., April 26, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Since 1997 when CMB's first regional center was approved, we have always put the investor's goals in front of our own, which is to obtain permanent residency in the United States. When an investor decides to move forward with the EB-5 process, there are two petitions they have to file: the I-526 petition, which allows them to apply for a conditional permanent green card, and then the I-829 petition, which removes the conditions on the visa and allows them to live permanently in the United States. Once the I-526 petition is approved and the conditional permanent green card is issued, the investor (and any qualifying family members) have to live in the United States for two years and prove they have created at least 10 jobs and that their money stayed fully at risk for the full two year sustainment period.
CMB's Group 16 partnership first opened for subscription in late 2013, raising $116 million in EB-5 capital (comprised of 232 EB-5 investors at $500,000 per investment) to assist in financing the construction of the Great Wolf Lodge resort in Garden Grove, CA, a $292,000,000 development. The investor pool in CMB Group 16 was comprised of investors from 23 countries including China, Nigeria, Vietnam, Brazil, and Russia.
The overall capital stack of the Great Wolf Lodge (GWL) project was broken down into $116 million of EB-5 capital as a mezzanine loan from CMB Group 16, a $65 million construction loan, $55 million of developer/GWL equity, and roughly $55 million of local government incentives. The GWL project consisted of 603 hotel suites, an approximately 110,000 square foot indoor waterpark, 30,000 square feet of conference space, and over 30,000 square feet of additional retail space.
The original 6 year EB-5 loan was set to mature in late 2020, but the borrower was able to repay the loan in full more than a year early in March of 2019.
Now that CMB Group 16 has achieved an I-829 approval, CMB has notified all of our Group 16 limited partners of the great news that the partnership can begin returning capital to any of the limited partners within the partnership that have made it through their sustainment period (two years of conditional residency).
To date, CMB partnerships have been repaid nearly $1 billion so far by their borrowers, and have been able to return almost a $450 million to eligible CMB EB-5 investors. Like we stated previously, CMB's goal is always to put the investors' goals in front of our own and we been able to prove that so far to almost 1,000 of our limited partners that have gone full circle in the EB-5 process: achieving a permanent green card and receiving a return of capital.
CMB has raised nearly $3 billion in EB-5 capital from over 5,300 EB-5 investors and their family members, more than 4,700 of which have received an approval of their I-526 petition and over 1,100 have seen an I-829 approval. These are milestones that very few regional centers in the EB-5 industry can compare with, and CMB was the first regional center to have its statistics audited by a third party accounting firm, to prove our statistics with our current investors and prospective investors.
SOURCE CMB Regional Centers
Share this article