Three iconic Philadelphia developments built by immigrant investors

Since 2004, more than 2,000 wealthy foreign investors aiming to live legally in the U.S. have pumped $1.4 billion into 40 Philadelphia-area projects in exchange for EB-5 visas, which allowed investors and their spouses and children to immigrate in exchange for $500,000 or more.

Nationally, more than 100,000 of these visas have been issued, raising more than $70 billion, since an early version of the program debuted in 1992. The vast majority were delivered in the 10 years ending in 2020, when the program stalled as the pandemic hit and Congress pushed for changes.

Here are three Philly developments supported by immigrant investments.

» READ MORE: How rich immigrants won U.S. residency by investing $1.4 billion in Philly projects

“The Convention Center expansion never would have been built without EB-5,” said former Philadelphia Mayor and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.

Two-hundred EB-5 visa-seekers pledged a joint $122 million in crucial, cheap financing for the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The project eventually cost $800 million, making it the most expensive building in state history.

One of the applicants was a family member of Chun Doo-hwan, the last military dictator of South Korea. According to a money-laundering lawsuit filed by U.S. Marshals in 2015, $530,000 of Chun’s money went into a $122 million fund set up by the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. (PIDC) EB-5 center to allow foreigners to invest in the Convention Center, in return for visas. The U.S. seized the money to return it to Korea.

Ahsan Nasratullah sought EB-5 investments in 2012 for Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corp.’s Crane tower, a mostly market-rate, 150-apartment high-rise tower in Chinatown.

Global City Regional Center, an LLC created by Nasratullah, raised $8.8 million for the $75 million Chinatown tower before it was built in 2017, mostly with bank and public financing. Nasratullah is now seeking investors for a project that could fit EB-5′s new urban focus, at the Africatown development in Southwest Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia Navy Yard’s redevelopment began in the early 2000s, when developers used PIDC’s newly established EB-5 investment program to begin converting former Navy buildings into office space that attracted Urban Outfitters and other businesses to the neighborhood.

In 2014, the Courtyard by Marriott Philadelphia South rose at the Navy Yard with the help of $17 million raised from EB-5 visa applicants by PIDC’s partner, CanAm Enterprises. Another $80 million was raised for what’s now the Philly Shipyard, starting in 2007. EB-5 investors also helped fund Axalta’s Global Innovations Center, Rhoads Industries’s expansion, and other Navy Yard projects.