this is just such a weird story [View all]

[cali]

Lure of Green Cards Brings Big Investments for Remote Resort in Vermont

JAY PEAK, Vt. — At this remote outpost by the Canadian border, Bill Stenger is overseeing what he says is the biggest economic development project that Vermont has ever seen.

He is expanding the Jay Peak ski resort, which he co-owns, but he is also building a biomedical research firm and a window manufacturing plant, extending the runway at the local airport and rehabilitating much of the nearby town of Newport, where he lives. There, he is developing the waterfront, adding the town’s first hotel and a conference center and rebuilding an entire downtown block. He is also creating what he says is the largest indoor mountain bike park in the world and a state-of-the art tennis center.

The price tag for the entire project, which Mr. Stenger says will create 10,000 direct and indirect jobs over several years, is $865 million.

But even more unusual than the size of the undertaking is the method by which Mr. Stenger and his business partner, Ariel Quiros, are financing it. They have tapped into a federal program that gives green cards, or permanent residency, to foreigners who invest at least $500,000 in an American business — the reward for the investment is a chance at United States citizenship.

<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/31/us/31vermont.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

10,000 jobs? Newport is a town of 5,000 and it's the largest town within an hour's drive- unless you count Sherbrooke and that's in Canada. There's no way that the infrastructure- schools, roads, housing, etc exists to support 10,000 jobs.

We've seen weird economic projects here before. In the 1970s, Gerald Bull, later killed by the Mossad, established the Space Research Corporation with the help of the CIA and built the world''s largest cannon and exported armaments to countries all over the world.

There's also the question of who the hell is buying all these green cards and shortcuts to citizenship.