eb5exclusive

A California-based company has announced that it will use foreign investments made available through the EB-5 visa program to purchase and develop an abandoned ethanol plant, which could create job opportunities for employees in Colorado and Kansas.

The company, Nexsun, plans to upgrade the Walsh, Colorado plant, which used to be owned by Sun Energy, by doubling its ethanol capacity to about 6 million gallons, the Hays Daily News reports. The company has previously tried to develop plants throughout Kansas, with mixed results.

Alex Park, vice president of project development with Nexsun, told the news source that the capital for the project was largely the result of the EB-5 visa program, which under the federal Immigration and National Act grants green cards to foreign investors for investing at least $500,000 in a business and helping to create U.S. jobs.

“We’re in the process of doing an engineering evaluation and getting bids from engineers to upgrade the plant,” said Park.

He added, “The plan is to get a couple of bids from an EPC (engineer, processing and construction) contractor by the end month and select a winner sometime next month.”

Though only 867 EB-5 visas were issued in 2007, out of a possible pool of 10,000, the number granted blossomed to 4,218 in 2009.