October 13th, 2014

City of Miami Taps Panorama Development for EB-5 Program

By Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor

Miami—The City of Miami has chosen Panorama Tower, a mixed-use project with a major residential component that’s is currently under construction at 1011 Brickell Ave. in the Brickell district, as its first EB5 designated development. That means it’s eligible to receive investment capital from overseas investors participating in the EB-5 program. Florida East Coast Realty, which has been active in the region for more than 60 years, is developing the property.

EB-5, formally known as the Immigrant Investor Program, was created by Congress in 1990 to stimulate the U.S. economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors. In return for making very specific investments in new U.S. businesses, investors can obtain an EB-5, or permanent immigrant visas. Part of the program involves designated EB-5 Regional Centers, which are public or private entities in specific places; working through a regional center means the requirements for obtaining an EB-5 visa are a bit less stringent.

The City of Miami EB5 Regional Center includes the three main South Florida counties of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach and is the only fully city owned and operated regional center in the United States. It isn’t affiliated with any other regional centers in Florida.

Panorama Tower’s 19-story pedestal will include more than 100,000 square feet of medically oriented office space with a teaching facility, a 2,000-car parking garage, a 208-room hotel and more than 50,000 square feet of retail shops and restaurant space. Directly on top of the pedestal will be a recreation deck, and above that will be the residential tower, consisting of 64 stories and 821 rental apartments.

The key to its new status under the EB-5 visa program is the number of jobs the project will create. For one thing, its building will involve 1,300 construction jobs, but more importantly the entire complex will have about 192 permanent management employees, 800 tenant employees and 220 visiting students when complete in 2018.