The China City of America (CCOA) project in Upstate New York took a small step towards gaining approval last week amid media spotlights, but an exact start date on construction has yet to be determined, according to the project team and local officials.

The project's initiator, Sherry Li and her team presented their current plan to the Town of Thompson planning board last Wednesday.

The plan, which covers only the first phase of the project, features a Chinese education center with 200 buildings on 575 acres of land that will serve about 3,000 students.

"The current phase targets an investment of $150 million, with 40 percent (about $60 million) from EB-5 investors," Li told China Daily.

With a minimum investment of $1 million (or $500,000 in low employment or rural areas), an EB-5, or Immigrant Investor Program, investor must not only create but also preserve at least 10 full-time jobs through the project. In return, the investor can become a permanent US resident, provided the project survives.

"The total number of jobs created from phase one will be 3,588, counting all direct, indirect and induced jobs," Li quoted from an economic impact statement prepared by the project's economists. If all 3,588 jobs are counted as valid full-time job creations, theoretically they will be enough to qualify more than 300 EB-5 investors.

Ultimately the project aims to build a China City that features multi-use commercial, residential, business, education, amusement and entertainment components. Li said that the entire project would have six rounds of investment and three construction phases on more than 2,000 acres, which will mean even more EB-5 opportunities.

With surging demand for EB-5 slots in exchange for green cards from Chinese investors, the CCOA project targets this need.

"I have visited their (the CCOA project's) office in China and based on my conversation with the sponsor, almost all investors will be of Chinese origin," said Larry Behar, China City's EB-5 immigration attorney.

Usually for EB-5 projects about 80 percent of the foreign investors are Chinese, a number that has surged in recent years, according to immigration lawyers.

However, with its blatant Chinese theme and large scale, the CCOA project has drawn some negative reaction from local residents, according to Thompson Town Supervisor Tony Cellini.

"We have letters from locals all the time telling us not to let them do it," Cellini said. "(But) you don't turn away a developer that wants to spend millions of dollars in your community. You've got to listen and work with them."

But the process could take some time.

The project was granted a positive State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) declaration during the town hall meeting last week, which kicked off the environmental review process.

The next step will be the public scoping session scheduled for Jan 22, 2014, when the outline for the environmental review will be discussed. After that the developer is to update the Environmental Impact Statement, which could take months. Not until the environmental review process is completed will the developer be able to start its site plan approval process, said Paula Kay, planning board attorney.

While the China City project garnered national attention in the US media, it's not the only attempt to build a "China City" on American soil.

According to reports, a Chinese group known as Sino-Michigan Properties LLC spent $1.9 million on 200 acres of land near the city of Milan, Michigan last year. That project aimed to build a China City with artificial lakes, a Chinese cultural center and more than 400 housing units for Chinese investors.

The project reportedly failed due to its lack of potential to create enough long-term jobs, according to Tong-qing Zhou, a Sino-Michigan Properties advisor quoted by Crain's Detroit Business. "Chinese investors particularly seek projects such as real estate and hotels, but a good commercial outlook of a project does not guarantee the success of getting a green card for the investors," said Geng Ting, an attorney at Geng & Zhang. "There are other criteria to fulfill, such as a convincing job creation forecast."

Zhang Yang contributed to this story and can be contacted at yangzhang@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily USA 12/25/2013 page2)