EB-5 investment funds new Miramar, Fla. business complex

Riviera Point Holdings LLC will broke ground March 29 on a $17 million business complex in Miramar, Fla. that brings international investment and a location for hundreds of new jobs to the area. The first new office construction in that market since 2009, The Professional Center at Riviera Point, located on a four-acre site at University Drive and the Florida Turnpike, will have 70,000 sf of office space in two four-story buildings. The initial building is projected for completion in February 2013.

According to an economic impact study by Wright Johnson LLC of Palm Beach, The Riviera Point development will result in the creation of 441 jobs from the construction and operation of the center once fully tenanted. Corrales Architectural Group of Boca Raton designed the professional center and Cushman Wakefield is the leasing agent. According to Jon Blunk of Cushman Wakefield, the complex offers easy access to area expressways and is flexible enough to accommodate multiple professional firms or a single corporate user in each building. He noted that the development is well-timed to meet the demand for new generation space in a market where vacancy rates have been steadily declining.

The Professional Center at Riviera Point qualified as an EB-5 investment opportunity under the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services program, and is part of the Florida Regional Center EB-5 Investment, LLC. EB-5 allows a foreign national interested in obtaining permanent U.S residency to qualify by investing in a commercial enterprise that generates at least 10 jobs for U.S. workers for two years. At that point, the conditional EB-5 Visa becomes permanent. The qualifying investment for a project such as Riviera Point, which is located in a Targeted Employment Area, is $500,000. BD+C

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