UNITE HERE Local 11: As Relevant Group’s Tommie and Thompson Hotels Face Foreclosure Auctions, Immigration Groups Ask If the Developer Created Jobs in Hollywood as Promised

Without disclosing the studies it has relied on, Relevant claims to have created 6,674 jobs through controversial EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa Program

As two of Relevant Group’s hotels financed through the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program face UCC foreclosure auctions on December 21, CARECEN-LA and ten other immigration groups, clergy and community allies wrote to Relevant Group, hotel lenders Machine Investment Group and Taconic Capital and auction broker Eastdil Secured questioning the basis of the firm’s job creation promises. Read their letter here.

Relevant Group claims to have raised more than $250 million in Chinese capital to finance a major hotel and entertainment development in Hollywood, California through EB-5, a controversial federal program through which wealthy foreign investors can secure U.S. green cards if they invest a minimum of $1,050,000 in a project that will create at least 10 permanent full-time jobs.

The letter reads, “as groups dedicated to protecting and strengthening immigrant rights, we are very concerned that Relevant Group and other EB-5 developers may be using this subsidy in a way that does not benefit the communities where their investments are being built.”

In February 2022, Relevant Group stated that the 178-room Dream Hotel created 1,966 jobs, that the 190-room Thompson Hollywood created 2,413 jobs, and that the Citizen News Hollywood Events Venue created 295 jobs and expects 267 more jobs to be created from operations. These numbers far outpace comparable hotel construction and operation projects in the Seattle and Miami areas, calling into question the accuracy of Relevant Group’s projections. To our knowledge, Relevant Group has not publicly disclosed the economic studies it relied on to generate these claims.

The full list of signatories includes the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN-LA), Pilipino Workers Center of Southern California, the Thai Community Development Center, Nikkei Progressives, the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, Los Angeles (APALA-LA), Bend the Arc: Jewish Action Southern California, the Echo Park Immigration Center (EPIC) and Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE).

On November 21, UNITE HERE Local 11 filed a federal unfair labor practice charge alleging that workers at the Thompson Hollywood bar were unjustly fired after engaging in concerted protected labor activity at the hotel.

UNITE HERE Local 11 is a labor union representing over 32,000 hospitality workers in Southern California and Arizona who work in hotels, restaurants, universities, convention centers, and airports.

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