Property under VA center sold
CENTER TWP — The property on which the Abie Abraham VA Health Care Center sits has a new owner as of Dec. 1 — and apparently one whose purpose is to facilitate visa opportunities for foreign investors.
Documents filed with the Butler County Recorder of Deeds on Thursday indicate the site's owner, Cambridge Healthcare Solutions PA LP, became an acquired real estate company, with correspondence now sent to EB5 Group LLC, a Las Vegas company designed to raise foreign capital to fund U.S. real estate projects, in turn creating jobs for U.S. citizens. This then creates an opportunity for foreign investors to receive a visa under the immigrant investor program, or the EB-5 visa.
EB5 Group also has an overseas location in Shanghai, China.
Cambridge Holdings LLC, original parent company of the property owner, could not be reached for comment. Phone calls and emails to EB5 Group CEO Bradley Sher and COO Robert Hobbs were not returned Friday.
When the Center Township location — roughly 250,000 square feet in all — was built in 2017, Cambridge announced it was its intent to hold onto the property for a lengthy period of time. Yet it appears this sale has been in the works for a number of months.
Legacy Investments and Management 1 LLC, described in county filings as the “sole general partner” of Cambridge Healthcare Solutions PA, was reserved in Nevada on Sept. 28, with paperwork ultimately filed for its incorporation on Oct. 14. Sher is listed as a manager of that subsidiary, as well as Legacy Investments and Management LLC, which was created Thursday.
The New Hampshire-based National Finance Authority approved the issuance of up to $150 million in bonds at its October board meeting for the “acquisition, construction, improvement and equipping of” the Butler VA site. Ultimately, the authority issued $135 million in bonds for that purchase.
Cambridge Healthcare Solutions, under new management, also took out a massive $270 million open-end mortgage on the property, which does include the bond proceeds, from U.S. Bank National Association.
VA investments
Under the EB-5 program, foreign investors may be eligible for the visa if they invest at least $1.8 million, or $900,000 in a “targeted employment area.” Investors must also have a “plan to create or preserve” 10 full-time jobs, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
EB5 Group's portfolio includes two other Veterans Affairs health care campuses, in addition to the Butler VA Health Care System, located in Monterey, Calif., and Winston-Salem, N.C. At the former facility, its website states, EB5 Group has raised $28 million in capital; at the latter site, it has provided more than $49 million. The California VA site led to the creation of more than 730 new jobs as well, according to the company.
The FBI Professional Office Building in San Diego, Calif., is also among the sites in EB5 Group's portfolio, with the company having procured $49.5 million for that site.
The company's ability to help procure such visas for investors, however, may be in jeopardy.
Under the EB-5 visa program, the USCIS sets aside visas for those who participate in a Regional Center Program. That program allows an investor to invest in a single regional center, which is designated by the USCIS, which then deploys that capital to its portfolio. Immigrants who do not participate in the program must invest the minimum amount — and create the minimum number of jobs — in a single commercial entity or in enterprises wholly owned by that single entity.
Although the company had received approval for its regional center — under its EB5 Group New York Regional Center LLC subsidiary — in November 2016, the USCIS terminated that designation in July 2020. A copy of the termination notice was not immediately available, but according to the U.S. agency, regional center designations can be revoked if the center either fails to submit required information or “no longer serves the purpose of promoting economic growth.”
It's not clear if the company's visa model would be impacted by that termination, as the EB-5 program does allow investments made across a portfolio wholly owned by a company to count toward the minimum.
