Opportunity Zone Summit Summary

Washington, DC, May 8, 2025

Overview
The Opportunity Zone Summit, hosted on May 8, 2025, in Washington, DC, and sponsored by Great Opportunity Policy, a policy advocacy group, brought together policymakers, developers, and economic experts to celebrate the success of Opportunity Zones (OZs) and advocate for their legislative extension and expansion. Established under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), Opportunity Zones (OZs) incentivize private investment in economically distressed communities through tax benefits, aligning with the Promised Land Opportunity Zone’s mission to deliver financial returns and social impact through strategic investments in rural agriculture.

(Photo Courtesy of Great Opportunity Policy)

Keynote Address: Senator Tim Scott
Senator Tim Scott, the “father” of OZ legislation, opened the summit with a compelling case for OZs as a pathway to the American Dream. He highlighted:

• $90 Billion in Investments: Private capital has driven disciplined, impactful projects in underserved communities.
• Talent and Opportunity: OZs unlock potential in areas often overlooked, emphasizing individual effort over geographic limitations.
• Permanency Proposal: Scott advocated making OZ tax incentives permanent to provide program certainty for investors, low-income communities, and businesses.  Advocates suggested a continuous rolling 10-year period to alleviate program discontinuities.
• Rural Focus: Scott emphasized potentially enhanced provisions to address historically limited investment in rural communities, aligning with our firm’s focus on farmland and rural OZ projects.

Congressional Update: Senators Mike Crapo and Tim Scott
Senators Crapo and Scott outlined the legislative path forward for OZs, leveraging the Budget Reconciliation process to bypass potential Senate filibusters:

• TCJA Extension: The 2017 TCJA, which includes the OZ provisions, delivered a $1.5 trillion tax cut that Crapo claims paid for itself. Without renewal, its expiration could result in a $4.3 trillion tax increase, with individual and pass-through entities, like family and business partnerships, being the hardest hit.
• Permanency Benefits: Permanent OZ incentives would enhance business certainty and encourage investors to continuously recycle OZ gains in this impactful investment program, much the same as tax deferred 401(k)s and IRAs allow for continuous tax deferral until funds are withdrawn.
• Rural Investment Gaps: Scott highlighted the need for tailored policies to drive capital to rural OZs, reinforcing our firm’s commitment to agricultural communities. Crapo noted that OZs worked exceptionally well in his mostly rural state of Idaho, with 54% of state OZs attracting some level of investment.
• Synergistic Tools: The Senators noted broadly that Federal, state, and local policymakers need to better leverage other existing policy tools and incentives with OZ tax benefits.

Panel Discussions: OZ Impact and Opportunities
Panels provided data-driven insights and strategic opportunities for investors:

• Commercial Innovation & Opportunity Zones (Moderator: Emily Lavery; Panelists: Frantz Alphonse, John W. Lettieri, Ying McGuire, Yves M. Mombeleur):
  • $90 Billion in Equity: This is a three-year-old figure, likely much higher now.  This figure also does not include debt financing. Created 300,000 net new housing units (double prior levels) in OZs along with significant job creation.
  • Supply Chain Resilience: Frantz Alphonse highlighted OZ's potential to support domestic supply chain businesses post-COVID, aligning with the Trump administration's priorities to reshore manufacturing and boost blue-collar employment opportunities.
  • Community Alignment: Ying McGuire emphasized simplifying processes for minority-owned businesses, with 1,500 corporate members in her network, including Microsoft and Georgia Power, supporting OZ funds for affordable housing.
  • Call for Permanency: Yves Mombeleur urged permanent OZ incentives to sustain private investors and community program confidence.
• Leveraging Policy for OZ Success (Speakers: Scott Turner, Ben Carson, Vince Haley; Moderator: Ja’Ron Smith):
  • Public-Private Partnerships: Ben Carson underscored OZs as a model for collaboration, leveraging faith-based communities to drive social good for the most vulnerable Americans.
  • Housing Impact: HUD Secretary Scott Turner reported 300,000 housing units built within OZs, including Miami’s Liberty Square ecosystem, integrating housing, education, and workforce training.
  • State Flexibility: Vince Haley proposed allowing state governors to select OZs for targeted residential or commercial development and reforming land-use laws to streamline residential permitting and improve housing supply and affordability.
• Private Sector Investment: Real Estate Development (Speakers: Louis Dubin, Jonathan Goldstein, Michael R. Harris; Moderator: Jill Homan):
  • Community Engagement: Harris stressed the need for better communication with OZ communities to build trust and maximize impact.
  • Flexible Financing: Goldstein advocated for OZ structures that support operating businesses’ working capital needs, enhancing investment flexibility.   He noted that a substantial portion of the $90 billion of OZ investment went into real estate businesses, rather than manufacturing, services, or other operating businesses.
  • Addressing Gaps: Dubin highlighted demand for workforce and multi-generational housing, as well as healthcare infrastructure, offering opportunities for diversified portfolios for investors.

Policy and Economic Outlook: Sustaining OZ Growth
Economic and policy leaders outlined strategies to enhance OZ's viability:

• Kevin Hassett and Stephen Miran (Economic Policy Discussion):
  • Economic Growth: Hassett, former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, projected sustainable 3% GDP growth with TCJA and OZ permanency.  He cited a rule of thumb that $1 trillion in additional Federal revenue is generated for each 1% increase in GDP.
  • OZ as Equalizer: OZs address geographic inequality, modeled after Jack Kemp’s enterprise zones, with a private equity-style approach to capital recycling.
  • Rural Prioritization: It was noted that House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith is exploring special provisions for rural OZs, a welcome catalyst for our farmland-focused strategy.
• Lynn Patten (Fireside Chat, President Trump Staff Member):
  • Trump’s Commitment: President Trump supports OZs, driven by fairness and merit-based opportunities.  She noted little-known facts that Trump increased funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and public housing in his first term.
  • Community Focus: Patten highlighted Trump’s personal engagement with communities for East Palestine, OH, to Flint, MI, reinforcing OZ alignment and desired social impacts.
• Alex Smith (Department of Treasury - Community & Economic Development):
  • Streamlined Capital Access: Treasury aims to facilitate OZ investments through financial education and public-private partnerships.  She also mentioned a policy discussion for prioritizing rural communities.
  • Efficient Investment Flow: Secretary Bessent is coordinating across agencies to ensure federal funds reach OZ projects efficiently, enhancing investor confidence.

In alignment with this momentum, the House of Representatives’ latest Budget Reconciliation effort—nicknamed the “One Big Beautiful Bill”—proposes significant enhancements to the Opportunity Zone program along with many other tax and spend budgetary items. A new round of OZ designations is set to take effect on January 1, 2027, featuring a tightened definition of low-income communities and a requirement that up to 33% of new zones be rural. While this increased rural focus is welcomed, the delayed start date may cause investors to hesitate until the new designations are active, and further delays could arise from the state-level selection process. To attract capital to these rural areas, the bill proposes a 30% basis step-up after a 5-year hold period and reduces the substantial improvement requirement from 100% to 50%. For OZ investments made after 2026, gains can now be deferred until December 31, 2033. A 10% basis step-up is available for assets in non-rural OZs held for five years, but unlike OZ 1.0, there is no 7-year benefit. Existing OZs will officially expire on December 31, 2026. The legislation also allows ordinary income to be deferred and receive the 10-year benefit, though it is not eligible for the 5-year basis step-up and is capped at $10,000 per taxpayer. The budget reconciliation provisions passed the House before Memorial Day weekend, and now the One Big Beautiful Bill will head to the Senate for further review and reconciliation.  Many expect the Senate will rewrite the OZ section to at least address unintended timing considerations causing potential discontinuity in OZ investments.  

Implications for Promised Land Opportunity Zone
The summit reinforces the transformative potential of OZs for low-income communities in rural and urban America:

• Proven Impact: With $90 billion in equity and 300,000 housing units, OZs have delivered measurable economic and social benefits, validating our investment thesis.
• Rural Opportunities: The repeated mentions by presenters of rural OZs and House drafting aligns with our farmland investment strategy, such as our 4,500-acre Pamlico County, NC, project and 858-acre Douglas County, IL, farm, where we leverage OZ tax benefits to enhance the productive capacity of the land while providing attractive risk-adjusted returns to investors.
• Permanency Prospects: Permanent OZ incentives would provide long-term certainty for investors and broaden our reach and impact on rural OZ communities.  This enhancement is expected to be considered by the Senate.
• Diversified Portfolios: Opportunities in housing, healthcare, and supply chain businesses complement our agricultural focus with potentially many manufacturing, renewable energy, or minerals being cited in rural American communities.
• Policy Support: Treasury’s commitment to streamlining capital access and potential rural OZ enhancements signals a friendly environment for impact investors.

Next Steps

• Monitor Policy Developments: Track Budget Reconciliation process outcomes for TCJA and OZ's permanency and House legislative proposals for rural OZs through the Senate deliberation process.
• Engage Stakeholders: Engage public policy advocates around targeted rural OZ initiatives and redrafting by the Senate to address OZ investment discontinuity concerns.
• Expand Outreach: Strengthen community engagement in our OZ projects to build trust and align with local agricultural stakeholders.

Conclusion
The 2025 OZ Summit underscores the program’s overwhelming success and social impact on these communities, enthusiastic political support, and alignment with Promised Land Opportunity Zone’s mission. With strong policy support, a focus on rural communities, and proven investment outcomes, OZs remain a cornerstone of our differentiated farmland investment strategy. We invite existing and prospective investors to join us in capitalizing on opportunities to revitalize rural American communities while achieving attractive risk-adjusted returns.

For those looking for some visible passion for this blue collar and rural American comeback, please enjoy this Opportunity Zones - We’re Not Done Yet reel released by Great Opportunity Policy.

For more information, please contact us at info@promisedland.fund.

Aritcle By: John Heneghan