EB5 Investors Magazine Volume 2 Issue 1 | Page 28

A Talk with the TEA Guru EB5 Investors Magazine sat down with TEA guru Elliot Winer to discuss what qualifies as a targeted employment area, state differences in designation processes, and his own experiences working with TEAs in the EB-5 program. He also offers his thoughts on gerrymandering—is the process of drawing TEA boundaries a way to circumvent the economy-boosting goal of the program for the personal financial goals of project developers, or is this sort of flexibility necessary and healthy for the program? As the former twelve-year chief economist and director of economic analysis for the Massachusetts Department of Workforce Development, and the current chief economist of the Northeast Economic Analysis Group (NEEAG), Winer is the go-to expert on TEA designations. 26 E B 5 I n v e s to r s M ag a z i n e