City’s Designated Opportunity Zone Offers Tax Advantages for New Investments

By Uptown StudiosFebruary 6, 201913 comments

(From Press Release) – The City of Davis is the pleased recipient of a designated Opportunity Zone. Established by the Federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, Opportunity Zones are an economic development tool designed to spur economic development and stimulate investments and job creation in low-income areas by providing tax benefits to investors. In June 2018, the U.S. Treasury certified 8,761 U.S. Census Tracts as Opportunity Zones, including the 879 nominated by California. These designations are in effect for a 10-year period, until 2026.

 “We’re pleased to have this opportunity to offer tax advantages for new investments in our community,” said Davis Mayor Brett Lee, “this Opportunity Zone designation will provide additional incentives for business development benefitting the local neighborhood, broader community and investors.”

The Davis Opportunity Zone (U.S. Census Tract 106.02) is approx. 0.8 square miles in size, bordered by the north/south UPRR line on the west, L St. and Pole Line Rd. on the east, Covell Blvd. and 5th Street on the north and I-80 to the south (see map below).

The key benefits of this Opportunity Zone and new Qualified Opportunity Zone Funds are the capital gains tax credits now available for a wide range of eligible business investments that may attract new private investment and funding opportunities to our community. Investors can obtain tax benefits, even if they do not live, work or have a business in an Opportunity Zone. Investments made by individuals in any designated Opportunity Zone through any Qualified Opportunity Fund, are allowed to defer or eliminate Federal taxes on capital gains until the date an investment is sold or exchanged, or December 31, 2026, provided the gain is reinvested in a Qualified Opportunity Fund. IRS regulations for how these funds will work are still pending.

Those interested in learning more about Opportunity Zones or Qualified Opportunity Funds should visit the California Opportunity Zone Portal at https://opzones.ca.gov/  and confer with their accountant or qualified financial advisor. Those interested in Opportunity Zone investment projects should visit the California Opportunity Zone Marketplace https://beta.oppsites.com/about/california 

City Manager Mike Webb noted that “The City greatly values this Opportunity Zone designation and the potential for economic stimulus that it presents,” and “our primary role is to make sure everyone in the community is informed about the designation and investment opportunities it can provide.”

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13 comments

  1. bordered by the north/south UPRR line on the west, L St. and Pole Line Rd. on the east, Covell Blvd. and 5th Street on the north and I-80 to the south

    Either the map is wrong or the description is wrong, as the the map includes the area between 5th and 8th Streets.

  2. Still think I was being facetious yesterday, DG?

    This isn’t an opportunity zone, this is a gentrification zone.

    Much of the ACTUAL almost affordable housing in town is located in this zone, because it’s older stock.  This is where a lot of the ‘characters’ in town are located, those with less money, those finding secret garages and basements, artists with a studio, musicians with a garage, students from homes with less income who find a split room to live in.  Almost everyone I know who is interesting in this town lives in this zone.

    The radical student housing advocates, the YIMBYs, and those developers who are also sociopaths (and that is not to impugn all developers, as I have found some to be quite decent) will be looking to take personal advantage of this gentrification zone and San Francisco our Davis a**es.

    But you are shooting yourselves in the foot radical housing advocates, for this zone is where all the true affordable housing is, the little ‘a’.  True, it might be replaced with more, super expensive multi-story apartment stock with an A-fordable housing program . . . if that’s what floats your boat (subsidized housing).

    I call for an end to this opportunity district, and replacing it with a new ‘eat the rich’ opportunity district that includes Wildhorse, Stonegate, North Davis Farms, El Macero, Lake Alhambra Estates and Willowbank.  Let’s scrape the single family homes of the Davis elite and replace them with eight story student towers. 

    Now THAT is Social Justice!

    1. Doesn’t this move now give the city access to increment taxes which are a replacement for RDA and thus giving them a revenue stream for affordable housing?  Perhaps I’m confusing programs, but I’m pretty sure this does.

      1. Maybe, but don’t count on it… at least directly… as I read it, the designation is for reducing/eliminating cap gains liabilities for investors… a possible windfall for investors in Nishi, Lincoln 40, etc…. what the ‘trickle down’ impact to City revenues is unclear…

        Suspect it will be de minimus, but might attract investors for other vacant/redeveloped property in the future… again, the financial benefit to the City is unclear…

    2. Alan makes a very good point when he relabels this as the gentrification zone.
       
      Given the fact that the principal “industry” and “product” of Davis is UCD’s creation of intellectual capital, I would have argued for inclusion of the area from A Street to D Street bordered on the north by  8th Street and on the South by I-80 (although it woulod appear that Opportunity Zone status for Nishi is a train that has left the station).  Having the newly created intellectual capital spill directly from the campus over into incubator space along the east side of A Street would appear to be a natural synergy to leverage.  The number of owner-occupied residences between A Street and B Street has been gettin lower and lower and lower each year for at least the past decade.

      1. “Having the newly created intellectual capital spill directly from the campus over into incubator space along the east side of A Street would appear to be a natural synergy to leverage.”

        This area was identified decades ago as the most appropriate place for building high rise student apartments, which considering the narrow streets and generally poor traffic access would seem to be a better use than creating a new commercial zone. Of course, now neither option will be considered because we wouldn’t want to disrupt the character of the neighborhood…

        1. Well said Mark.  I agree 100%.  I do think that the character of the neighborhood has deteriorated substantially over the past 20 years, with the sprouting up of character-less apartment buildings, replacing poorly-maintained older buildings that actually had character,   It may get to a point where there isn’t enough character left to support the “preserve the character” argument.

  3. As Bill pointed out above, the city has now issued a correction:

    The Davis Opportunity Zone (U.S. Census Tract 106.02) is approx. 0.8 square miles in size, bordered by the north/south UPRR line on the west, L St. and Pole Line Rd. on the east, Covell Blvd. and 8th Street on the north and I-80 to the south

    1. Jim Frame pointed out the error first… I recognized he was correct, and affirmed, while I took a swipe @ lib arts majors…

      Jim was more courteous…

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