Dear OZ community,

In the last month, there has been a buzz in the OZ industry with the announcement of the Opportunity Zones Transparency, Extension, and Improvement Act. Previous to the announcement of this new bill Jimmy Atkinson and I discussed writing a letter to congress to advocate for Opportunity Zones. It turns out that some of the terms outlined in our original letter are ASLO part of the new proposal. With the help of OZworks Group member Rachel Reilly and Catherine Lyons (Economic Innovation Group), we composed the letter that we highlighted in a recent webinar. A major thank you is due to Jimmy Atkinson, Rachel, Catherine, and Ashley Tison for their support in making this initiative happen!

MANY of you showed up in a HUGE way by signing the letter and advocating for improvements to the OZ incentive (which includes a possible extension)! We have received such a positive response to the letter that we’ve decided to keep the signatures open for a few more days. Currently, there are over 238 (and growing) signatures to support our letter that will be sent directly to congressional leaders. We thank you for making time to come together as a community so we can have our collective voice heard!

Additionally, we want to highlight one of the stories showcased in our advocacy webinar as a shining example of what is possible because of Opportunity Zones. Above is a video clip of OZworks Group member Susan Springsteen (H2O Connected LLC, a QOZB) discussing how she is transforming a vacant, former steel office building in Coatesville, PA into an adaptive reuse building. She formed the nth Innovation Center as a Qualified Opportunity Zone Business that will occupy a portion of the building and will provide workforce training for the local community and incubate tech start-up companies.

Thanks again to everyone who made this advocacy campaign a huge success and remember, you still have a few days to sign the letter, if you haven’t yet.

See you soon and be great! 

Chris Cooley, Co-founder – OZworks Group