• 04 April 2016
Savannah Embraces EB-5

January 28, 2016

It was announced on January 15, 2016, that the Savannah World Trade Center for Investment had been certified as an EB-5 Regional Center as of January 8. The Regional Center is a joint venture between the Savannah Economic Development Authority and the World Trade Center Savannah.

Brynn Grant, Vice President of World Trade Center Savannah, said that the WTCS pursued establishing an EB-5 Regional Center because, “EB-5 is a job-creation program that attracts capital to our market.” The unemployment rate in Savannah sailed above 12% in 2011, but declined to 6.1% in April of 2015, still above the pre-2008 economic crisis days when it was close to 4.0%.

The more meaningful statistic is that 9,108 people in Savannah were actually unemployed in November 2015. Those people don’t want to be a statistic. They want a job.

By encouraging EB-5 investment, the group expects several projects that are in the development pipeline will be able to come to fruition.