SACO — Local officials are contemplating the use of the Immigrant Investor Program, or EB-5, to help fund projects.

EB-5 is a federal program created by Congress in 1990 to stimulate the United States economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors, according to information from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website.

Under the program, the investor and his or her immediate family is granted a green card and must make a minimum investment of $1 million, or $500,000 in rural or underemployed areas. Projects must create at least 10 new full-time jobs.

State Rep. Linda Valentino, D-Saco, was instrumental in getting the program in Maine, under LD 1 last year.

Valentino held a half-day conference earlier this week at Thornton Academy on EB-5, which was attended by officials from the city, local economic development agencies and Thornton, as well as a local developer. Also present were two out-of-state experts on EB-5.

There have been a lot of questions about EB-5, and it was important to get everyone in the same room, she said.

Chris Farmer, general manager and attorney for Saddleback Mountain in Rangeley, spoke at the conference. He created the first EB-5 center in Maine, covering all of Franklin County as well as Livermore Falls. The process required hundreds of pages of documentation, he said. It can cost upwards of $150,000, but he was able to do much of the work in-house.

Farmer said it was decided to make the EB-5 center bigger than just the county in order to help the local economy. The area has lost a lot of jobs to companies overseas and the EB-5 is a way to get foreign money back into Maine, he said. The ski resort is proposing development that would help make it more competitive with bigger ski resorts, such as an additional lift, lodging and an expansion of the lodge.

Farmer is currently setting up a board of directors for the EB-5 center and seeking foreign investors.

“We’re pretty flexible, we’re still in the infancy,” he said.

Farmer said his EB-5 center could be expanded geographically, and Saco could be considered.

“”¦ If there’s a way we can work with another part of the state and both mutually benefit, we’re willing to look at that,” he said.

The meeting was informational, and no one made commitments, said Valentino in a phone interview after the meeting.

Right now there’s a lack of capital in Maine, said Valentino, and the EB-5 program could bring money in for infrastructure projects. It could also create local jobs, she said.

Saco Economic Development Director Peter Morelli said in a phone interview that EB-5 is “an alternative source of large amounts of capital for large economic development projects.” It could be helpful in getting some projects underway, and Farmer has done “an incredible job” getting the EB-5 center established in Franklin county, he said.

Carl Stasio, Thornton Academy headmaster, said in a phone interview that a few parents of Chinese students had approached the school about the EB-5 program a few years ago. Thornton Academy has more than 100 foreign students through its boarding program.

As a private school, Thornton Academy does not get public funding for infrastructure projects, and must raise money for capital improvement projects. With many older buildings and a growing student population, the school has many shovel-ready projects that could be proposed, he said.

The EB-5 program could help the school get funding for projects such as new dormitories in the future, should the school expand its housing, but Stasio said, discussions right now are “very preliminary,” and school officials are “cautiously optimistic.” Stasio said the school would need to look at the financial model, and determine how it would pay any loans back.

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 325 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.