July 17, 2012

Steven Polivy, managing shareholder of Akerman's New York office, and Richard Spees, chair of Akerman's National Government Affairs & Public Policy Practice Group and managing shareholder of the firm's Washington D.C. office, were quoted in the Commercial Observer article, "EB-5 Financing Set to Expire In September."  EB-5 legislation allowing overseas investors to fund job-creating real estate projects in exchange for green cards is set to expire at the end of September. Proponents of the financing mechanism see support for the bill, but fear that a stalled deal to renew the law could strand hundreds of millions of dollars of development. EB-5 financing is attractive because it provides developers with higher leverage levels than they would otherwise be able to source from a loan from a private lender.

Polivy, who has structured several major EB-5 transactions stated, "If you had a 60 to 90 day hiatus that would be bad but it wouldn’t be as bad if it went into the New Year and congress still hadn’t renewed it. You would have projects that were partially funded that can’t proceed and suddenly they have to go out and find alternative financing and they’re scrambling."

Spees stated, "There is overwhelming support on Capitol Hill for this, they strongly support it. This is incredibly uncontroversial but immigration just can’t get through Congress or the Senate right now."