Today, the Tampa City Council called on its attorney to present a resolution in two weeks that would direct the Buckhorn administration to create an EB-5 regional center, an increasingly popular federal Immigrant Investor Program. Whether the city will go forward with it remains unknown, though Bob McDonough — the city's urban development manager — said the mayor and his staff are in the middle of studying various formats of the program.
The vote for the resolution was 4-2, with council members Charlie Miranda and Lisa Montelione dissenting.
The issue arose when a report — produced by a task force that was created to study the program — was delivered to Council members on Thursday. It was last fall when Councilwoman Yolie Capin introduced the EB-5 regional center program to her colleagues.
The EB-5 program has been around since 1990, but it's been in the past five years that more cities and states have started using it and expanding on it. The program allows foreigners to get green cards for themselves and their families if they invest at least $500,00 to create a minimum of 10 U.S. jobs through regional centers.
This article appears in Feb 21-27, 2013.