Southern Oak Dental is a successful chain of dental clinics with three locations in South Carolina. Founded in 2017, the company began as a direct EB-5 investment by its principals, who have since received I-829 petition approvals.
Now, the management team behind Southern Oak Dental plans to replicate its successful model to open three new clinics in South Carolina over the next two years.
The new clinics will be developed and operated by three new commercial enterprises ("NCE"), which will be managed by Southern Oak Dental.
Location
Southern Oak Dental Summerville ("the Clinic"), the first new clinic, is located in Trolley Square. The neighborhood is a focal point in the Town of Summerville’s Vision Plan, which calls for the development of Oakbrook into an Urban Village/Eco-Tourism Destination through redevelopment and revitalization of underused commercial properties into active urban neighborhood centers of commerce.
Investors in this high-unemployment targeted-employment-area (TEA) project qualify for a decreased investment amount of $800,000 (the ""Capital Contribution"") and get access to reserved visas.
In order to qualify as a high unemployment area, the location must have an unemployment rate that exceeds 150% of the U.S. national average unemployment rate. The current national average is 5.4% and 150% of this is 8.1%. The Project’s location has an unemployment rate of 8.9% and therefore qualifies as a high-unemployment TEA.
Market Opportunity
Southern Oak Dental Summerville will be the first new clinic developed. The Clinic will be located at the Trolley Square Shopping Center in Summerville, a rapidly growing suburb of Charleston. Within five miles of the Clinic, the population is growing at a rate that is more than 2.5 times higher than the national rate of growth.
The Clinic will compete with a handful of dental clinics in the immediate area, but the market is far from saturated. Given the size of the population, there is demand for nearly 60 dentists within a five-mile radius, but only 43 dentists are operating.
As the population continues to grow and redevelopment attracts more households to neighborhood, demand will only continue to rise, creating ample opportunity for the Company to establish an immediate patient base and build it over time.
Management Experience
Southern Oak Dental clinics are led by Director of Operations Kelly Quinones. She brings more than 20 years of experience in dental-office management and dental-insurance billing. She successfully oversaw the launch of the first three Southern Oak Dental locations, and plans to utilize the same, proven approach for future locations.
She is joined by Yaqi Mu, Business Manager and a former EB-5 investor of Southern Oak Dental. Yaqi and her family had their I-526 and I-829 petition applications approved through this direct investment project. Ms. Mu will leverage her experience in job-creation standards and the EB-5 program to ensure the Company’s activities and operations align with EB-5 program qualifications, providing added assurance to investors.
Ms. Quinones and Ms. Mu are joined by a highly skilled team of dental professionals who will manage all clinical staff at the new locations.
Job Cushion
The econometric study estimated that 20 jobs will be created from the Project, which is equivalent to a job cushion of 100%.