Kristen Laughlin & Stephen Strnisha lead online presentations at CDFA

This past week, two of CiF’s senior executives lead online presentations about the USCIS EB-5 program; offering advice and guidance to new entrants to the EB-5 marketplace. CiF Chief Marketing Officer Ms. Kristen Laughlin spoke about locating EB-5 investors and best practices when working with migration agents while CiF CEO Mr. Stephen Strnisha lead a presentation on incorporating EB-5 funds into a project’s capital stack, using the recently completed first phase of the Flats East Bank development as an example.

CiF relocates its global headquarters

Cleveland International Fund has relocated its global headquarters to downtown Cleveland! Our US offices are now located at 1240 Huron Road East, in Suite 420. For those of you familiar with the area, this puts our offices in the heart of Cleveland’s Theatre District, almost directly across the street from Playhouse Square.

As an added benefit, CiF now shares a building with COSE (Council of Small Enterprises), the Greater Cleveland Partnership (the area’s Chamber of Commerce), Cleveland Development Advisors, United Airlines, and other great organizations. We are excited to be working in close proximity with other groups that help catalytic development projects succeed in Cleveland.

Flats East Bank Phase 1 - Fully Funded

Cleveland International Fund is pleased to announce that we have completely funded the $45 million USD EB-5 loan to the Flats East Bank project. Located in downtown Cleveland, the first phase of the Flats East Bank consists of building a new Aloft Hotel, attached retail space, and the 22-story Ernst & Young Office Tower.

The 90 EB-5 investors that participated in CiF’s Flats East Bank Project have all been approved by the USCIS.

CiF was designated by the USCIS to operate as an EB-5 Regional Center in 2010.

July 4th Naturalization Celebrations

The first week of July is not just a time for celebrating the birth of the United States of America but also a time to look towards the country’s future and welcome new immigrants as US Citizens. Last week’s Independence Day celebrations coincided with more than 100 naturalization ceremonies, taking place around the country between July 1^st and 5^th.  Some 7,800 people took the Oath of Allegiance and with it the opportunity to “fulfill their dream of becoming US Citizens,” in the words of USCIS Director Mr. Alejandro Mayorkas.

This year’s celebration of citizenship also featured special naturalization ceremonies at sites integral to America’s struggle to maintain independence and defend freedom, including: the USS Midway Museum in San Diego; the Battleship Missouri Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial in Put-in-Bay, Ohio; and aboard the USS Constitution in Boston.

Wailian visits CiF

Pictured above:  Ms. Kristen Laughling (CiF CMO),
Representatives from Wailian,  and Ms. Tricia Bires
(Director of Treasury at UH).

During the week of June 17^th CiF was pleased to host representatives from the Wailian Overseas Consulting Group for a tour of our offices, EB-5 project sites, and the City of Cleveland. CiF has worked with Wailian on several EB-5 projects in the past and was excited to show them the successes we have had and how EB-5 projects were progressing.

The University Hospitals centered around using 

EB-5 funds to partly fund the construction of two new, award winning hospitals in Cleveland. The Ahuja Medical Center is a full service hospital in suburban Cleveland and the Seidman Cancer Center is a nationally recognized facility that offers comprehensive cancer treatments.

Later in the day the Wailian reps toured other projects, including the Flats East Bank project in downtown Cleveland. The Flats Project recently opened, now that the Ernst & Young office tower and Aloft hotel are both online. The Wailian team toured the new office and hotel facilities and met with Flats East Bank developers.