as and gateway cities and states experiencing significant economic activity as a result of immigrant investment .
The identification of a statistically significant relationship by Smith ( 2015 ) between the presence of immigrant populations and the EB-5 program offers further insight on the presence of immigrant growth machines in the United States .
The EB-5 program supports the immigrant growth machine due to its ability to serve as gap financing for economic development plans across the country . Difficulties in accessing affordable financing for economic development initiatives , particularly after the financial crisis of 2008 , has led real estate developers and community stakeholders to partner with immigrant investors and foreign economic developers to secure financing through the EB-5 program .
New York ’ s City ’ s Brooklyn Navy Yard
This financing not only helps diversify capital in economic development plans , it also serves as a key element of finance in real estate deals . A prominent example of this has been seen in New York City ’ s Brooklyn Navy Yard , in which EB-5 capital has been combined with government investment to finance the Navy Yard ’ s largest expansion since World War II , bringing thousands of jobs and millions of dollars of investment to Brooklyn . It is viewed as a national model for successful implementation of EB-5 capital in public-private partnerships .
The success of the Brooklyn Navy Yard ’ s development plans is a clear example of the immigrant growth machine ’ s ability to spur job creation and foreign investment , and of the EB-5 program ’ s ability to support the immigrant growth machine by providing a meaningful contribution to the capital stack of large scale economic development projects .
A key component of the immigrant growth machine is its ability to stimulate entrepreneurship and increased economic activity . Innovative economic development programs , such as the EB-5 program , have supported immigrant entrepreneurship and economic activity in the immigrant growth machine .
At the time of this writing , Chinese developers have been involved with nearly half of all of large-scale real estate deals in downtown Los Angeles ( Piersen , 2016 ). These developers are building skyscrapers and residential units , with a large number of buyers of the residential units expected to be Chinese . In fact , Chinese buyers account for 12 percent of all foreign citizens who purchased homes in the United States in 2014 ( Kim , 2015 ), with more than half of these Chinese buyers purchasing homes in California . The infusion of foreign capital into development plans , and the marketing of development projects to foreign nationals , has spurred construction , economic development and job growth in the immigrant growth machine .
Marshalling Resources of Economic Development Community
Perhaps most importantly , the EB-5 program is an important component of the immigrant growth machine due to its ability to marshal the resources of the economic development community , such as how the aforementioned Navy Yard project was able to leverage EB-5 investment to raise capital from governmental sources . This is not limited to the Northeast or the West Coast , as the economic development community in cities in the industrial rust belt , such as Cleveland and Pittsburgh , has been seeking out EB-5 investment for urban renewal projects and gap financing . Large-scale projects , funded by EB-5 investors with hopes of transforming urban areas , have been supported by developers , city planners and community groups because
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