Full Auditorium Gains Insights on Hawaii Opportunity Zones

Posted on Oct 9, 2018 in News, Opportunity Zones

2018 Opportunity Zones PresentationUnderstanding Opportunity Zones in Hawaii

Opportunity Zones are a new federal tax incentive designed to attract private investment and stimulate economic growth in disadvantaged areas across the country—including neighborhoods in all of Hawaii’s counties. Enacted in Congress through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, this new incentive offers tax benefits to individuals and businesses when they invest capital gains from a prior investment into Opportunity Funds that deploy capital into designated zones. On October 4th a half day seminar was held titled “Understanding Opportunity Zones in Hawaii.”   The event was co-sponsored by DBEDT, Hawaii Community Reinvestment Corporation, and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

On Oahu most of the opportunity zones overlap with the transit-oriented development (TOD) areas around the rail stations, which offer a lot of investment opportunities in housing, commercial development and businesses. Almost 200 people attended the event and joined the conversation exploring possibilities for Opportunity Zones in Hawaii. Local and national experts (including Maurice Jones of LISC and a Brent Parker from Novogradac & Company) spoke and focused on what we know so far about how this new tax incentive can be used and the roles regional stakeholders can play to ensure the benefits of this investment vehicle are broadly shared. Here are the presentations:

Click through photos from the event:

2018 Understanding Opportunity Zones in Hawaii