Immigrants to provide Margaritaville financing

Hollywood city commissioners have approved a financing plan for the $126 million Margaritaville hotel and restaurant on the six-acre, city-owned site at Johnson Street and A1A. Under the plan, roughly $75 million in project funding will come through a U.S. Department of Immigration program, in which immigrants will loan developer Lon Tabatchnick $500,000 each in exchange for a green card to live in the country. Tabatchnick, who will have a 99-year lease on the property, will provide another $10 million in equity, and foreign investors and a $10 million loan from the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency will provide the rest. The city will need to guarantee the developer’s bonds and will be slated as the de-facto owner of the 17-story hotel if it fails. Construction is expected to begin in October 2011. [Miami Herald]