Hudson Yards Developer Tops the List of EB-5 Immigrant Visa Program

ERY Tenant LLC is one of the major developers of the new Hudson Yards project: a collection of residential and retail space on Manhattan’s West side.

ERY’s investment is estimated to cost around $4.1 billion on a 417,670 square foot parcel of land. Tax breaks and other government assistance for the project are estimated at over $6 billion according to the New York Times .

But ERY is also the recipient of another benefit for the project: EB-5 visa investors.

According to data from the UCIS obtained by Investigative Economics, ERY is the largest applicant of EB-5 funds, far beyond any other enterprise.

In total, 1,210 EB-5 project applications were approved through either the Real Estate Immigration Fund or the Related New York City Metro Regional Center LLC regional center. Otherwise, 29 applications were denied and 10 are still pending.

Out of 1,910 applicants, ERY represented about 2 percent of all applications. The vast number were immigrants from China.

The EB-5 immigrant investor program allows foreign nationals with either $500,000 or $1,000,000 to invest in American projects in exchange for a visa. A piece for The New Republic estimated EB-5 investment in Hudson Yards at $1.5 billion.

But EB-5 immigrant visas have also been regularly criticized for both allowing visas to be bought and for being commonly associated with fraud.