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Proposed cancer treatment facility seeks EB-5 investors
Backers of a high-tech cancer treatment facility are hoping that they can find foreign nationals to help fund the expensive project through the EB-5 visa program.
The New York Department of Health is reviewing three different proposals from groups that want to bring a proton beam cancer treatment facility to the state, according to Crain’s New York Business. This technology allows cancer killing radiation to be administered in precisely focused doses, however the building of such a facility will likely cost more than $200 million.
One of the proposals plans to spend $273 million to build a proton beam cancer treatment facility in Queens. The news source says that of the three proposals, the Queens one is the most controversial because of its reliance on politicians. U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, U.S. Representative Ed Towns and State Senate Majority Leader John Thompson have come out in support of the Queens project, reports the news source.
The backers of the Queens site have filed a request with the Department of Homeland Security to allow them to raise $250 million through the EB-5 visa program.
Started in 1990 to help U.S. businesses gain better access to foreign capital, the EB-5 visa program gives foreign nationals a chance to earn a U.S. green card. If foreigners invest $1 million in an American business and that investment leads to the creation or preservation of 10 jobs, they become green card eligible. Some areas of the country, like the site of the proposed Queens project, are designated as Targeted Employment Areas, which are distinguished by having an unemployment rate that is at least 150 percent of the national average. Only $500,000 need be invested in such areas.
Schumer recently wrote to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) supporting the Queens proposal “to raise $250 million of foreign investment to construct a much-needed groundbreaking cancer treatment facility in New York City that will create an estimated 2,800 jobs and save countless American lives.”
Earlier in the year, Towns also wrote to the USCIS expressing his support for the Queens proposal.
“It is encouraging to have the opportunity to support a project with enormous potential to stimulate job creation and economic growth in New York by attracting foreign investor capital,” he wrote, according to the news provider.