How can cities and towns maximize the positive impact of their Opportunity Zones? The answer is different for every community, and that’s why LOCUS and Smart Growth America are offering tailored technical assistance to six Massachusetts communities in the first-of-its-kind Massachusetts Opportunity Zones Academy.
How does a city make sure it’s ready for investment? A question weighing on many municipal minds is how to organize planning, economic development strategies, and zoning regulations to make it clear to residents, developers, and investors that this is the right place to be. Further, how does a community encourage investment without sacrificing the characteristics that make it an attractive community to its residents?
LOCUS and Smart Growth America are launching the 2019 Massachusetts Opportunity Zones Academy, a five-month technical assistance program, with the goal of building the capacity of three to five Massachusetts communities to leverage their designation as Opportunity Zones.
Much of the buzz around Opportunity Zones has centered on big cities, but Councilman Bruce Lockett of Pine Bluff, Arkansas is determined to show potential investors that his community—and other small towns like it—should not be overlooked. Last year, he championed a local ordinance to create a task force of community stakeholders charged with raising Pine Bluff’s profile and attracting investment to the town’s three Opportunity Zones.
The newly created Opportunity Zones program will likely go down as the largest and most significant federal community development initiative in U.S. history, with trillions of dollars in new private investment about to start flowing into pre-designated low-income communities around the country.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 included a new powerful economic development tax incentive – Opportunity Zones – designed to encourage long-term private capital investment in America’s low-income communities. With over 8,700 Opportunity Zones – spanning the entire continental US, the District of Columbia and US territories – now eligible to tap into … Continued
As 2018 comes to a close, we’re taking a look back at some of the most popular content from Smart Growth America and our various programs over the past year. If you’ve appreciated some of this work or our writing about it, make a tax-deductible end of year gift to help support our work in 2019!
On October 24, LOCUS and The George Washington University’s Center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis (CREUA) will unveil their ranking of Massachusetts’ most investable Opportunity Zones.
The first ever New England Development and Investment Showcase is a space for anyone with challenging development opportunities to exhibit their project sites to a diverse group of real estate and economic development industry insiders at the 2018 LOCUS New England Leadership Summit.
Register today for the 2018 LOCUS New England Leadership Summit, happening October 24, 2018 at the Boston Society of Architects in Boston, MA.