Opportunity Zones, 270 Federal Actions to increase opportunity

[Eric Duke]

President Trump held a cabinet meeting in the White House today where Dr. Ben Carson spoke on Opportunity Zones. Would someone expound further on federal actions? He mentioned grant preference points, loan qualifications, reduce fees, eligibility criteria, reverse policy approaches, 270 federal actions to increase investment opportunity zones. I'm curious too, if we have someone from BP who is holding a seat on the revitalization consult group that was talked about.  Thank you.    

[Natalie Kolodij]

Until they're passed they're just thoughts. 

I'm guessing most tax professionals won't spend time studying things that are mentioned in a white house meeting until they're actually passed. 

[Chris Montgomery]

I haven't read the full list of the 270 items, but did read through the 160 items that were published in December.  I'll paste the published link below.  The majority of the items were small regulatory and subregulatory items that candidly don't apply to most investors. Almost all of the items can be implemented without any need to legislative approval since they are regulatory in nature.  

https://opportunityzones.hud.gov/sites/opportunityzones.hud.gov/files/documents/OZ_One_Year_Report.pdf

We're in the process of pursuing HUD loans on multi family projects in opportunity zones. The preference points sound nice and ultimately may make a difference but the reality on the ground is that projects and loans are continuing to be evaluated primarily based on the strength of the project and the sponsor much as they have been in the past.

[Eric Duke]

Thank you for that information.