TLDR

The Opportunity Zones economic development incentive launched in 2017, with Brookfield to Cadre to Anthony Scaramucci announcing participation. Now 5 years later, and after the pandemic, what happened with the incentive amidst growing demands for affordable housing, downtown revitalization and job creation across the United States? In this panel, we provided a context and framework to understand place-based incentives for the real estate industry, like OZs, from their earliest days to now. Then we dove into the good, the bad and the ugly with OZs. In conversation with experts involved in writing and implementing the legislation, we learned what happened when OZ funding was actually deployed, discussed what the future looks like for this incentive and got a peek at new incentives that could be inspired by OZs.

Walk away from this panel with these 3 takeaways:

  1. OZs are part of a long history of place-based economic development incentives that are all complex, imperfect and increasingly have become decentralized and privatized.
  2. The criticisms of OZs center on access and impact while its strengths center on the size of the pool of capital and its name recognition.
  3. A reform bill is in the works which will make make OZs once again an incredible opportunity for many in this room, including investors, developers, lawyers and accountants.

And finally, if you know someone high up at Netflix, contact me. I can write the script for their next hit - “The O-Zone: The True Story Behind the Most Interesting Incentive in America”! 🎥

Photos

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Deck

This is what I began the panel with:

Yale AREA Conference - Beyond Opportunity Zones.pdf

Contacts

Host:

Panelists: