Question:

Can potential EB 5 investors be reached directly for smaller deals? I am CFO of a restaurant company. I have been doing research and due diligence on the EB5 program over the past 6 months. I find it an intriguing funding option for our company as we grow. We typically create 50 fully time equivalent jobs per new restaurant we open. We have a new restaurant that we are starting construction on in the Raleigh, NC area. I have a TEA letter from the state of North Carolina Commerce department for our project address. Now, I am looking for $1.5 million to fund the project, but the EB5 professionals and regional centers that I have talked to in this area say the raise is too small for them to be interested. Each of them need the raise to be $10mm+. I understand that the costs for a RC can''t justify a smaller raise, however, I am surprised that there it is so difficult to find EB5 investors to make the funding happen. So, my questions are is there a group / exchange where potential EB5 investors can be reached directly for these type of small deals? are there any groups or people that you would recommend that I call that have potential EB5 clients that might be looking to do a direct deal? are there any EB5 RCs that you could recommend in this area that would license their EB5 to our company so that we could do a RC deal vs having to do a direct investment deal? I had a RC in NY outline how that could work for a deal in that NY when I was evaluating a potential restaurant in NY. Thank you for your help.