For San Gabriel Valley hoteliers, it’s all eyes on the East.
Four hotels opening soon in the Valley either largely target Chinese tourists or were built with EB-5 funding, according to the Pasadena Star News.
There is the Hyatt Place hotel at 101 W. Valley, which will open by the end of next year. Down the block, the Sheraton Los Angeles San Gabriel hotel, with 288 keys and meeting space, is slated to open in November.
Not surprisingly, three of them are also funded by EB-5 investors, primarily Chinese nationals who can gain permanent resident status in the U.S. if they make business investments of at least $500,000.
San Gabriel officials predict that it will be able to collect $69 million in the next three decades from the Sheraton hotel alone through the 12 percent per night transient occupancy tax.
San Gabriel attracts about 350,000 tourists from Asia every year, San Gabriel’s Economic Development Director Angelica Frausto-Lupo told the Star news. Although the main attraction is metropolitan Los Angeles, many visitors prefer to stay in the San Gabriel Valley because of its Asian community. Los Angeles is the most popular American city among Chinese millionaires, according to a survey from Hurun Report.
But EB-5 funding, in the meantime, faces an uncertain fate. The Department of Homeland Security is considering a number of reforms, including increasing the minimum investment amount from $500,000 to $1.35 million. [PSN] — Cathaleen Chen