Category : News

City of Dallas Regional Center (CDRC) project will create at least 300 new jobs.

(Dallas, Texas) January 31, 2011 – The City of Dallas Regional Center (CDRC) announces commitments from 30 foreign nationals to invest $500,000 each – a total of $15 million – to provide a loan to Encore Enterprises, Inc., to operate a call center in central Dallas. The project will result in the creation of at least 300 new jobs. This is the first major success from the City of Dallas program established to attract foreign investment to job-creating enterprises.

“Encore Enterprises is proud to be working with the CDRC to bring this call center to Dallas,” said Patrick Barber, president and CEO, Encore Enterprises, Inc., a diversified real estate firm. “Beyond this first project, we envision a long-term partnership with the City because the CDRC’s capital provides us the unique opportunity to grow our business and bring more jobs to Dallas in the future.”

The low-cost financing for the call center is provided through the Dallas Regional Center, which was established under the federal government’s EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program. Through the program, qualified foreign nationals can earn legal U.S. residency by investing in an enterprise that creates 10 jobs for each $500,000 investment.
According to USCIS, there are more than 130 approved Regional Centers across the United States, each with its own distinct mandate and structure. The CDRC was established late in 2009, and after a competitive bid process, the City appointed Civitas Capital Management, LLC, a private investment firm, to independently manage the CDRC, ensure projects exceed the minimum EB-5 job-creation requirements and preserve investors’ capital.

“The CDRC is different,” said Dallas City Councilmember Ron Natinsky. “We deliberately structured the CDRC to be a true public-private partnership between the City and Civitas. This long-term initiative will benefit Dallas by bringing qualified foreign investment and ongoing job creation to our community. Investors benefit from CDRC’s high-quality, independently managed investment offerings. These factors set the CDRC apart in the broader EB-5 marketplace, and we believe the CDRC sets a new standard nationally.

“The CDRC has attracted investors from China, Mexico, India, Bolivia, South Korea, and Russia,” Civitas Managing Partner Dan Healy said. “In fact, the $15 million call center investment fund was oversubscribed by more than 20 percent, due mainly to the high quality and conservative risk profile of the investment, as well as the City’s strong support for the overall CDRC program.”

Civitas is currently evaluating more than $200 million in potential CDRC transactions, including additional projects with Encore Enterprises. The firm is solely focused on projects that exceed the job creation requirements imposed by EB-5 program regulations. The CDRC’s investment mandate is quite broad, and Civitas is considering investments in a range of industries, including multi-family apartments, logistics, light manufacturing, medical facilities, senior housing, financial services and other sectors of the local economy.

About Encore Enterprises, Inc.
Encore Enterprises, Inc. is a diversified commercial real estate firm in Dallas, Texas, with a unique blend of expertise, innovation and efficiency in acquisition, investment, asset and property management, leasing and development. Since the company’s formation in 1999, Encore Enterprises has completed over $1 billion of acquisition, development, and financial transactions with a focus on the Southern, Eastern and Midwestern United States.

About Civitas Capital Management, LLC
Civitas is a specialty asset management and financial services firm. As the exclusive manager of the CDRC, Civitas works to ensure each CDRC investment is EB-5 compliant and meets the job creation requirements. Further, Civitas performs meticulous financial analysis to preserve investors’ capital and provide risk-adjusted returns.

About the City of Dallas Regional Center (CDRC)
The CDRC is the official EB-5 Regional Center of the City of Dallas. Owned by the City of Dallas and independently managed by Civitas Capital Management, LLC, the CDRC enables the City to attract foreign capital to job-creating enterprises and is a significant asset in the City’s overall economic development program. For more information, visit online.

Media Contact for CDRC: Anna Marie Johnson Teague DAWSON, MURRAY & TEAGUE Communications | Email [email protected] or call (713) 858-5423.

A few years ago, an 82-acre site in D’Iberville was an open field. Today, it is one of South Mississippi’s hottest retail areas, thanks to interstate access, a nearby residential boom, and the magic touch of Dr. Bharat Sangani, a Gulfport cardiologist and successful real estate developer whose master plan has created a thriving commercial corridor that’s still growing.

D’Iberville –One of South Mississippi’s busiest shopping complexes, which sprang from an open field three years ago, will begin a new phase of growth next month. Construction of a theater complex could draw thousands more customers to the already bustling area.

Located at the northeast quadrant of the intersection of Interstates 10 and 110, the center has enjoyed amazing growth. A little more than three years ago the 82-acre site was an open field and a man-made lake known to some as the “Blue Hole.” Developers now plan to widen roads and improve drainage to deal with a growing number of shoppers.

“Traffic is incredible,” said Terry Powers, owner of Music Go Round, which moved from Edgewater Village in Biloxi. “There’s really only one way in and out.”

Powers relocated after his business records showed that most of his customers came from Orange Grove, D’Iberville and Ocean Springs. Business is better than ever, he said. “We had a really good Christmas,” he said. “It helps when you’re in the right spot and everything seems to be moving this way.”

Several factors could fuel more growth at Lakeview Village. Many new homes are under construction north of I-10. And Mississippi 15, which leads north, is being widened and will shortly connect to U.S. 49.

By February, construction will begin on a 14-screen movie theater with stadium-style seating. The development will include space for eight or more restaurants, which will bring evening shoppers, said Patrick Barber, president and chief executive officer of Encore Enterprises, which owns Lakeview Village.

Encore Enterprises is a developer of commercial real estate and hotels owned by Gulfport cardiologist Bharat Sangani, Whose “Ask the Doctor” column appears in The Sun Herald on Thursdays. Along with Lakeview Village, Encore has developed more than $3.5 billion worth of real estate.

Earlier this month, Encore announced the purchase of four Marriott hotels in Indiana and Kentucky, bringing its number of hotel holdings to 17.

Nearly 50 businesses now thrive in Lakeview Village, but Barber –unlike shoppers and even business owners –isn’t stunned by the pace of expansion.

The 85-acre site is built around a 16.2-acre man-made lake, which was dug in the 1970s to provide dirt to build the Interstate 10 overpasses. Interestingly, most of the lake has been filled to create new commercial building sites.

Construction of the theater complex will begin on a 52-acre parcel east of Lamey Bridge Road. About 25 acres will become a park for D’Iberville residents, and a 5-acre lake will provide drainage for stormwater runoff.

To support the recent expansion, the city of D’Iberville has issued a $4.5 million bond to pay for roads and drainage. The bond will pay to unite Sangani Boulevard and Mallet Road at a single intersection on Lamey Bridge Road.

The bond will be paid off which sales taxes from the development. Infrastructure for the first part of the project was completed with a similar $3.5 million bond, secured by sale taxes.

D’Iberville borrowed heavily to help developers open the shopping center, but city officials feel the investment has paid off. Annual sale taxes in D’Iberville have risen from $1.2 million to $3.5 million, said Alan Santa Cruz, city business manager.

D’Iberville officials believe that supporting the shopping center has helped the city.

Developers have received few complaints from shopping center tenants.

Even new businesses thrive, said Kay Bosarge, manager of Dollar One, Which opened in the last week of July.

Shoppers at Lakeview Village enjoy the convenience of staying near Biloxi to shop.