Latest news with #Surak
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
City, developer break ground on apartment project
ELKHART — A private developer and the city broke ground on a project that will bring much needed affordable housing to the city. 'It's very important for us to understand that Elkhart has a need for housing,' Mayor Rod Roberson said Tuesday during a ground-breaking ceremony for 515 East Apartments. 'So do most communities, but I mean this throughout the spectrum. We bring in 35,000 to 40,000 people a day from different counties that really want to live closer to where they work.' The project by RealAmerica Companies, located on 515 East St., is a mixed-use development comprising 48 units of income-based housing. There will be one- and two-bedroom apartments in a four-story building. The development will feature a variety of spacious floor plans, and each unit will have a balcony or patio. The total development cost is $14 million, which equates to about $300,000 per unit, said Mike Surak, president of RealAmerica Companies. 'We first started looking for property in Elkhart in 2022,' Surak said. 'We've developed in South Bend, Warsaw, Fort Wayne, so we've had a footprint in Northern Indiana for quite some time now and we've just heard about all the activity that's happening in Elkhart. So when we first came to town looking for development opportunity ... the occupancy was 99.1 percent, so it was clear that there was a need for housing at that time.' 515 East Apartments is partially funded by the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program and received an allocation for funding from the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority (IHCDA). The city contributed to the project by providing a forgivable loan and building fee waivers. The IHCDA further assisted with a loan from the Affordable Housing and Community Development Fund. Rents will be based on the area median income (AMI) and serve households earning up to 80 percent of the area median income. 'There's a range of affordability from 30 percent of the area median income to 80 percent of the area median income, which we think captures a good range of affordability levels, depending on certain household incomes,' Surak said. 'It's all income-based, so it's all driven by what a particular individual or family earns annually as a household.' The apartments will also include a roof-top deck and garden, and community space with a lounge, kitchen and fitness center. There will also be a dog park and dog wash station. The development site is in an ideal location for housing because it sits in a pedestrian-friendly area of downtown, developers said. 'We were really attracted to the site because of its central location in downtown Elkhart, and the walk within minutes to Main Street and restaurants and retail that they offer in that district,' Surak said, 'and then also all of the development that's been happening in the River District.'
Axios
03-03-2025
- Business
- Axios
Golden visa math doesn't add up to trillions
President Trump has proposed abolishing the EB-5 visa for immigrants willing to invest in the U.S., and replacing it with a " gold card" that, he said, could see enough demand to eliminate the national debt. Why it matters: For all of Trump's debt-busting dreams, realistic demand for any such program is likely to be in the thousands of people, not the millions. Indeed, according to experts, when it comes to "golden visas" there could be more demand from Americans looking to emigrate than there is from non-Americans looking to immigrate. Where it stands: The gold card is designed to replace the EB-5 investor visa, which gives out green cards in return for investment in the U.S. economy. The minimum cost of an EB-5 ranges from $800,000 to $1.05 million, substantially all of which takes the form of an investment and thus doesn't reduce the applicant's net worth. Between 2017 and 2024, an average of 8,823 EB-5s were issued per year, per the EB-5 visa data dashboard. Between the lines: Trump's proposed gold card costs five times as much as an EB-5 — $5 million — and the money would go straight to the government, where it could help reduce the national debt. Flashback: Both the U.K. and Australia have tried similar "golden visa" programs. Both were wound down after interest peaked at a few hundred applications per year, said London School of Economics professor Kristin Surak, author of "The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires." "If it's a donation, the interest will be in the very low thousands per year," Surak told Axios. Zoom in: Anybody with a "gold card" would be obligated to pay U.S. tax on their global income, said Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, author of "The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World." That makes U.S. tax residence significantly less attractive to the global ultra-rich than most other jurisdictions. Besides, Abrahamian noted, the trade in golden visas from places like Portugal and Malta, both E.U. member states, has been going on for long enough that most ultra-rich people who want one already have one. Zoom out: When it comes to the global market in golden visas, "one of the most remarkable changes in the past few years is the huge increase in interest from U.S. citizens" looking to gain residence in countries like Portugal, according to Surak. "People are looking to secure access to the U.S.," she said, "but U.S. citizens are also looking to hedge their bets and secure a Plan B elsewhere." The bottom line: It's very unlikely that there would be more demand for the gold card than there is right now for the EB-5, to say nothing of enough for Trump's $50 trillion goal.
