Chen isn’t the only council candidate who would back foreign investment at the Point. Former City Councilman Tony Daysog, who is also in the running for a council seat this fall, said in a recent candidate forum that the city should look at drawing foreign investors through the federal government’s EB-5 immigrant investor program, which offers visas in exchange for job-creating investments in new firms. In 2010, some 46 percent of the EB-5 visas – which require an investment of between $500,000 and $1 million – were issued to natives of mainland China and Taiwan, according to a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services slideshow.

“I can envision investors from any part of the world, but certainly in California at least, people from Taiwan or mainland China have been very active program,” said Daysog, who said he became aware of the program through a project he worked on for a former employer.

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“Whatever builder or series of builders we’re working with, if they’re scouring the globe for capital – all power to them,” Daysog said. “They’re helping us meet our vision for Alameda Point. We should welcome this.”