Colin Behring of Behring Companies is widely known as the EB-5 developer who took on the U.S. government — twice — and won.
Behring said his Danville-based company launched lawsuits after the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Department of Homeland Security decided “randomly” to curtail the program, created in 1990, which allows foreign investors to get a green card if they invest a minimum of $800,000 towards a project that creates at least 10 full-time jobs.
It was “a little nerve-racking for our investor base and the entire EB-5 industry as a whole” as those cases navigated their way through the legal system, he said. But after the settlement it was clear that “EB-5 was back,” and as the plaintiff in the case, Behring was in a great position to capitalize on its newfound prominence.
“A lot of new investors that saw the program open again knew exactly who we were, because we were the reason the doors were open again,” the East Bay developer said. “Our program and our platform probably grew nearly 300 percent after that.”
Behring’s latest EB-5 project is 1900 Broadway in Uptown Oakland, a 39-story tower right above the 19th Street BART Station that recently began leasing.
In a conversation with TRD, Behring explains why he takes a long-term view of the Oakland market, why it’s perfect for remote workers, and where EB-5 is heading in the future.