At Bisnow's Capital Markets Extravaganza event at the Fairmont Hotel this week, Homeier & Law PC partner Michael Homeier says his firm is one of four members of the EB-5 alliance that helps developers locate immigrant investor financing for development and redevelopment projects in the US, with a heavy focus on California. The program targets foreign investors who make an investment of $500k to $1M, and in turn, they get green cards for themselves and their immediate families.

NES Financial EVP Reid Thomas touted EB-5 as the only job creation program in the US that doesn't cost the US taxpayer anything; it's completely funded by foreign investors and acts as an alternative source of capital that's relatively low cost compared to traditional sources.

EB-5 can fit anywhere in the capital stack, which helps when banks are lending less. A quarter of the projects using the program at the moment are resorts, hotels and casinos; locally, the Renoir Hotel just started using the program. TMG Partners CIO Matt Field calls it an "interesting source" of capital and has explored using it as a funding option.