South Florida developers are increasingly looking to EB-5 funding to fill gaps in their capital stacks, as foreign investors rush to participate before the program expires.
The visa program, which provides green cards to investors and their immediate families whose funds lead to the creation of 10 full-time jobs for U.S. workers, has a minimum threshold of $800,000 for investment in rural areas or areas with high unemployment. That goes up to $1.05 million for projects outside of Targeted Employment Areas.
EB-5 financing typically accounts for between 20 and 30 percent of a project’s capital stack, replacing preferred equity. The funds are a loan, so if it all goes according to plan and the project is completed, it’s a win-win for investors and developers.
“When we look at the people from Latin America coming in [to the U.S.], most of them are coming to get an education for their children, and sometimes the parents don’t even come over,” attorney Jill Jones, who has been involved in more than 600 EB-5 projects, said. “The parents will apply for the green card for the family. They’ll send over their college-age children and purchase a condo for them to live in.”
The program has been around since 1990 — yet experts predict a last-minute scramble driven by the demand for legal immigration. It’s unknown if it will be renewed, especially as the Trump administration pushes its golden visa program through. The golden visa, with a starting price tag of $1 million, is more expensive and the visa-seeker does not get any of that money back.
“A lot of foreigners want to get in before it’s too late. There’s a premium on legal immigration.”
Developers and investors are keeping a close eye on two deadlines: grandfathered provisions expiring at the end of September 2026 and the expiration of the regional center program a year later in 2027.
Despite the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration through mass deportations and aggressive ICE raids, the U.S. is “still the country of choice” for immigrants, said attorney Ronnie Fieldstone, a partner at Saul Ewing.
Fieldstone, who has represented developers and regional centers involved in more than 450 EB-5 projects that have raised more than $8 billion, said that after September 30, 2027, the investment amount will increase based on cost of living.
“A lot of foreigners want to get in before it’s too late,” Fieldstone said. “There’s a premium on legal immigration.”
The payoff
Developers like EB-5 because it’s a cheaper-alternative financing, Fieldstone said. And many have been tapping into the program for years without disclosing it to the public, including the Four Seasons Residences at the Surf Club, a Fort Partners development in Surfside that was completed in 2017.
“The fact is most [developers] keep it under the radar,” Fieldstone said.
Other projects that recently raised funds or are currently doing so via EB-5 include Fortune International Group’s Ora by Casa Tua condo-hotel tower in Miami’s Brickell, Fortune and Blue Road’s Nexo Residences in North Miami Beach, SB Development Group and Hazelton Capital Group’s Edgewater condo tower called Cove Miami and Okan Group’s Okan Tower in downtown Miami. In Broward, the Related Group and Dezer Development’s Armani/Casa Residences Pompano Beach, and Related, Tate Capital and Rok Enterprises’s Bahia Mar are also tapping the EB-5 spigot.
Most, if not all, of these developments have hospitality components, which makes it easier to fulfill EB-5’s job-creation requirements.
“Eventually [the program] will go away. There seems to be this urgency, especially with what’s happening in the world with immigration.”
Michael Sadov, sales director at the 70-story Okan Tower condo and hotel project under construction, agreed, calling it “free money for the developers.” Okan announced in August that it was eligible to receive EB-5 funds and plans to release 30 investor slots at a time.
“Eventually [the program] will go away,” Sadov said. “There seems to be this urgency, especially with what’s happening in the world with immigration.”
Sadov said the developer, who is Turkish, is working with a dozen potential investors from Colombia, Mexico and Turkey. (The developer is Turkish.) Colombians have been the biggest buyer pool among foreign buyers in South Florida in recent years, but it’s become harder for them to come. Trump, who has been feuding with Colombian president Gustavo Petro, recently threatened to raise tariffs on Colombia and stop all payments to the country.
Compass agent Mike Martirena expects to see more foreign buyers from countries like Colombia invest in EB-5 projects. His team has brokered deals to Colombian and Brazilian investors at Alta Development’s River District 14, a condo development in the Miami River neighborhood.
“This is a smart way to get money out of the country,” Martirena said.
Flip side
EB-5 isn’t for everyone.
Only 10,000 visas are available per year. The upfront cost of becoming an EB-5 designated project can deter investors, according to Fieldstone.
“There’s no guarantee they’ll raise the money,” he said.
Jones also explained that it’s more complicated than traditional bank lending.
“With that comes a lot of reporting and assurances that a developer not using EB-5 wouldn’t have to do,” she said. “They would need to have someone on their team that could track how many investors came in, how many jobs were created that can be allocated to each investor and making sure that the EB-5 money is never commingled with other operating funds. These are things that they wouldn’t face in other types of finance. They have to be very patient.”
Whether a developer raises EB-5 funds directly or uses a regional center will affect the timeline.
Investors are also vulnerable to their own set of issues. How long it takes investors to receive their green cards depends on where they hail from. Mainland China and India have waiting lists that are years long, but the processing time for investors from other countries can be as quick as a few months to secure conditional residency, and two years before it becomes permanent, Jones said.
Investors have also fallen victim to fraud and stalled projects.
Developer Dan Kodsi’s Legacy Hotel & Residences project at Miami Worldcenter has been on hold for well over a year. Kodsi raised money via EB-5 for the planned 50-story condo-hotel tower, just as he did with Paramount Miami Worldcenter. But Legacy is tied up in a messy foreclosure lawsuit, and construction stalled last year — exactly when the project was supposed to be completed.
Up and down South Florida’s coastline, investors have also sued the developers of a handful of projects over alleged mismanagement or misappropriation of funds. In 2023, Chinese nationals sued the ex-developer of the former U.S. immigration building site in Miami’s Upper Eastside, alleging the misappropriation of more than $50 million in investor funds.
Much of the opportunity for fraud was eliminated with the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022, experts say.
“The worst thing [that can happen],” Fieldstone said, “is they lose their money and don’t get a green card.”
