Xiamen Food for Thought…

This Xiamen delicacy almost proved too much for HRM Sharon, who politely declined when the dish was unveiled at dinner last night by our gracious host.  I've never seen Sharon even WINCE with all the zany Chinese stuff we've been honored with, so I took great delight thinking for a moment I could best her.  But when I ate one, she was checkmated and ate the whole thing…(-:Local Sea Worm in Cold Jellyfish PureeThere is nothing…NOTHING…we will not do to spread the good news of Lake Point EcoVentures EB-5….…

Enter the Draggin’: Big Promises, Slow Execution Creates EB-5 Turmoil in China

As busy as some EB-5 megaprojects are in China, and as much money as much as they are collecting, seems the "shovel" in the "shovel-ready" is a bit behind the momentum: our second full week in China has led to a number of conversations with Chinese brokers with clients who funded EB-5 projects many months ago…and are still on "hold".  The reason: most EB-5 projects being marketed in the Far East are EB-5 dependent for execution.  Translation: A bank promises the GP that they'll fund 33% if the project gets local government and EB-5 funding for the balance.The county/city (or both) agree to cover a third of the deal if the balance is covered by a bank and/or EB-5 funding SO…The GP shows up in China with "confirmed" investments from …

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Clauses: The Devil’s in the Details

CHENGDU-  A passing observation: as my friendship continues to develop with the amazing group of folks with whom Sharon has been working here in China, the comfort level settles in mutually.  One of the sidebars to our efforts to present Lake Point EcoVentures Phase I to prospective EB-5 investors seeking a secure route to U.S. Permanent Residency is the agents' increasing interest in understanding the nuances of OTHER EB-5 projects which have been aggressively marketed to them and their clients.It remains true that if you have nothing good to say about someone/something, best to say nothing at all; at the same time, when a specific legal question is asked, one is ethically bound to answer it truthfully.  In reviewing but a handful of the latest EB-5 offerings stuck in …

China EB-5 Agencies Speak with One Voice: “Protect Our Clients!”

NANJING-  Day Seven of our EB-5 marketing trip to China and Vietnam has us dividing and conquering:  Sharon is closing deals in Guangzhou while I flew ahead to Chengdu, capital of the Sichuan Province and inventors of paper money, to train our collaborating team for Thursday's big Lake Point EB-5 seminar.  Seems they are still quite busy making money in China, paper and otherwise:  we've enrolled 9 of our 20 EB-5 investor slots for Lake Point EcoVentures during our first week here! There is one reason for this mind-bending success, and her name is Sharon Shi, plain and simple.  The past week has had us visiting the creme de la creme of Chinese agents, those princes revealed through Sharon's seven months of frog-kissing in 2010. Our princely welcome a…

Beijing Rocks! Lake Point EcoVentures EB-5 Receives Red Carpet Welcome

Day Two wrapping up in Beijing and I am seriously impressed.  Sharon’s pre-existing agency relationships are making this a comparative walk in the park compared to the last time I ambled through this neck of the woods.  The best immigration agencies, the smartest questions, the sharpest people…Lake Point EcoVentures Phase I’s 20 EB-5 investor slots are the talk of the town. It’s nice to be wanted. (-:  Beijing is an attractive, cosmopolitan city with incredible restaurants, malls…serious consumer firepower.  My first impressions couldn’t be better. And, not to be disappointed, the Peking Duck DOES taste better in Peking.  The other offerings at that particular restaurant…well….…

T Minus 3 Days: On Trust and EB-5 Marketing in China

Just finished a chat with my still-jet-lagged partner Sharon Shi, who is somewhere West of Shanghai with a serious case of insomnia and EB-5-itis.  Sharon left Monday, arrived Tuesday, and will be meeting me in Beijing next week to begin what is turning into a rather grueling seminar schedule.  When you're gearing up for a 3 week, nonstop road show in China and Vietnam, melatonin doesn't cut it.  And, as you can imagine, getting ready for this kind of road trip is no minor event and I have been scrambling to get things in order before I leave this weekend.  In reality, between Skype, email, and cell phones, the biggest challenge is the time difference.  Hard to be perky for a conference call when it's 9 am for the immigration broker and 9 pm here.We …

Announcing Our China/Vietnam Seminar Tour: Oct. 16 – Nov. 9, 2011

On October 16th, the distinguished Chinese-American attorney Sharon Shi and I will begin a three week EB-5 marketing tour in China and Vietnam.  Sharon, my shiny new partner, spent most of 2010 closing EB-5 deals in China; she decided, despite her astonishing success last year going it alone, that taking a cranky old know-it-all this time around might improve sales, and the feedback from our agents in China so far seems to corroborate her theory.  (You’ll be hearing more about Sharon as soon as we get our various sites updated.)Our lead mission is to fill a $10M/20 investor tranche for Lake Point EcoVentures EB-5.1  Lake Point EcoVentures is a remarkable private-public venture where the GP is mining valuable aggregate rock (from which highway construction materials are made)…

Orlando: EB-5 Financing of Real Estate

Well,  Brian Su's first "real-estate-focused" EB-5 event yesterday ROCKED…as expected.  The room was packed with the usual suspects — and a lot of new folks — and the topical theme was definitely more advanced than Brian's prior events.Opening speaker Robert Divine – a top-tier EB-5 attorney — delivered a clear and consice explanation of how construction jobs interplay within job count dynamics in Regional Centers.   Ronnie Fieldstone — whose excellent article on securities compliance issues for EB-5 I published in Wednesday's Immigration Insider — did a masterful job in clarifying SEC-related issues.  (I was delighted to see his new partner — my OLD partner in the 90's — Randy Sidlosca in attendance!).Candidly, when you are p…