Fortune: Opportunity Zones aren't a program, they're a market

Rob Lalka, professor of practice and executive director of the Freeman School's Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, co-authored an op-ed in Fortune about Opportunity Zones, the tax-advantaged zones created in 2017 by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to spur economic development and job creation in economically distressed areas. While there has been criticism about the types of projects being developed initially in OZs, Lalka and his co-authors, Howard Buffett and Mark Newgarden, argue that it's up to private sector leadership to ensure that law achieves its intended purpose.

OZs can, and should, go beyond easy-to-finance luxury condos, but only private sector leadership can make that happen. Therefore, it is time for business leaders to go beyond the simplest deals by engaging with the communities in which they are investing, becoming serious about social impact, and getting down to the hard work of making this new market work for everyone over the long haul.

To read the article in its entirety, visit fortune.com:

https://fortune.com/2019/10/03/opportunity-zones-market-investment/