The city of Miami’s EB-5 regional center is getting a major overhaul.
Managing Director Mikki Canton resigned on Wednesday due to the changes brought on by Miami’s new city manager, Emilio González, according to the Miami Herald. González cut Canton’s salary and role with plans to use the money to staff his office.
Regional centers submit applications to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on behalf of developers and their investors. The first project to receive an EB-5 designation was Tibor Hollo’s Panorama Tower in 2014, the same year the city’s regional center was established by Canton and former Miami mayor Tomás Regalado.
Panorama was slated to have 99 investors injecting $49.5 million into the development, creating 2,500 jobs, according to the Herald. Per the agreement between the regional center and Panorama’s fund, the center would get $5,000 per investor, plus 4 percent of the capital. But the regional center hasn’t generated any money, nor has it produced any visas. [Miami Herald] – Katherine Kallergis