Economic Innovation Group: OZones State-of-The-Marketplace 3 Years Later

Catching up In February the Economic Innovation Group released a new report titled 

"Opportunity Zones: State of the Marketplace." 

The greatest missing piece of the OZ experiment has been the lack of reporting requirements to provide timely information on OZ investments.
The report concludes by outlining needed policy improvements, including bipartisan consensus for immediate legislative action to restore the impact evaluation arm that was always intended to be part of OZs but was removed from the final statute for procedural reasons . . .

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By Kenan Fikri, John Lettieri, and Daniel 

Opportunity Zones: State of the Marketplace

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Three years since Opportunity Zones became law and one year since final regulations were released, the report explores whether the policy is working as intended, what its early effects have been, and details the improvements needed to ensure the policy fulfills its promise. While the early findings from the field provide cause for optimism, there is room for policy improvements and continued opportunities to educate investors, local leaders, and other stakeholders. 

EIG's report finds that the Opportunity Zones (OZ) incentive is proving to be among the most flexible development finance tools the federal government has created. Over the past three years, OZs have moved tens of billions of dollars, 70 percent of which likely represented investment that would not have otherwise been directed to OZ census tracts according to the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA).

From rural Alabama to the steel towns of Pennsylvania, the report highlights the role of OZs in unlocking equity investment in places long overlooked by traditional investors. Yet, local capacity to understand and utilize OZs varies immensely across the country, and much remains to be done to educate stakeholders on the incentive and improve the policy.

Download the Report

The greatest missing piece of the OZ experiment has been the lack of reporting requirements to provide timely information on OZ investments. The report concludes by outlining needed policy improvements, including bipartisan consensus for immediate legislative action to restore the impact evaluation arm that was always intended to be part of OZs but was removed from the final statute for procedural reasons. You can read the full report and explore the policy recommendations here.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Added note: a discussion on expanding access to broadband and digital opportunity in some of the nation's most distressed communities.  The report concludes by outlining needed policy improvements, including bipartisan consensus for immediate legislative action to restore the impact evaluation arm that was always intended to be part of OZs but was removed from the final statute for procedural reasons. You can read the full report and explore the policy recommendations here.