Opportunity Zone – Opportunity Zones – Insights From the Land of OZ

November 25, 2023 by Brad A. Molotsky

NJEDA Creates Emerging Developer Fund – makes grants of up to $200,000 for pre-development costs available for small scale developers

Last week, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) Board approved a new $20 million pilot program to support “rising real estate developers”. The Emerging Developer Fund is designed to help developers gain access to capital and build additional capacity to expand their existing portfolio.

Access to capital for “small-scale developers” in the real estate development industry continues to be a challenge according to the NJEDA. These barriers include predatory lending, excessive carrying costs, and predevelopment expenses a developer may encounter. These pre-development costs are incurred by the developer before they can seek short-term construction financing. Often times, new developers lack the resources to cover these types of costs which they are pursuing projects – including design costs, environmental due diligence, site work diligence, permitting costs and the costs to prepare a financial model for a particular project.

The Emerging Developer Fund will provide grants of up to $200,000 to assist small-scale developers with up to 50% of their pre-development soft costs. The program will support “small-scale developers” that have completed at least two – but no more than five – commercial and/or mixed-use properties of similar scope. The creation of the program is intended by NJEDA to address various difficulties that continue to be a constant burden to emerging developers, which limit opportunities to expand their portfolios.

“As we work to revitalize communities across the state, we must ensure new, emerging developers have access to the same opportunities and advantages in order to create an inclusive economy,” said NJEDA Chief Executive Officer Tim Sullivan. “The Emerging Developer Fund will better position small-scale developers to grow and succeed, which will ultimately help build stronger communities. The program’s focus on developers in underserved communities underscore’s Governor Murphy and Lieutenant Governor Way’s commitment to creating a stronger, fairer economy and improving the lives of hardworking New Jerseyans.”

“Projects located in Opportunity Zones or in a Government Restricted Municipality (GRM) will receive an additional $50,000 bonus, increasing its award to $250,000. There are 169 designated Opportunity Zones and three GRM’s, including Atlantic City, Paterson, and Trenton.

According to the NJEDA press release, “soft costs eligible to be covered by the program include, insurance costs, legal fees, utilities, property taxes, construction drawings, and design fees. Costs associated with purchase of property or construction are not eligible.”

Follow the Yellow Brick Road – this program is a nice supplement to the NJ approved federal Opportunity Zone program and recognizes that smaller developers (as well as others) often times have trouble cobbling together the initial costs to pursue change in the various neighborhoods where Opportunity Zones exist in NJ (and beyond). NJEDA’s program will help address some of these issue by providing assistance to help with various soft costs and assist in getting a project moving from ideation to reality. While this may not be sufficient to get a large scale project off the ground, $250,000 can indeed go a long way to helping with environmental review, site review, planning and contracting to get control of a site and help move it to a more likely ability to execute.

Contact your Duane Morris attorney for more information. Prior Alerts on the topic are available on the team’s webpage.

If you have any questions about this post, please contact Brad A. Molotsky, Robert Montejo, Lee Potter, Parthiv Patel, Anastasios Kastrinakis, Cristina Sanchez or the attorney in the firm with whom you are regularly in contact.

April 19, 2021 by Brad A. Molotsky

OZ: NY moves to reduce certain state Opportunity Zone benefits for NY deals – Smart, Necessary or Something Else?

New York legislators have moved forward in their 2021 budget process to limit some of the state Opportunity Zone benefits that had previously applied in New York. Some commentators have pointed to the budget process reduction of benefits as a “left wing” reaction to former President Trump’s support of the federal OZ program (which applies in all 50 states and the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico). Others have stated that it is a necessary move to reduce benefits for deals that should not be receiving federal and state benefits.

If the budget is approved, and the provisions become operative, New York will no longer offer some of the state tax benefits to real estate investors funding Opportunity Zone projects in New York, placing New York deals at a disadvantage to New Jersey, Connecticut, Ohio and other adjacent states that have approved and will retain their state benefits.

The OZ program is a Federal program that was enacted in 2017 and which became operative in 2018. Governors of all 50 states, including New York, were asked to review census data provided by the federal government which focused the Opportunity Zone program on low income areas throughout the US as identified in HUD census data from 2010. The Governors of all 50 states were then given 3 months to choose from within the potential applicable opportunity zones in their state which zones should become Opportunity Zones. Thereafter, once these zones were selected by the various governors, they were sent to Treasury for final approval, all of which selected zones were ultimately approved.

This process occurred during early 2018. Thereafter, the majority of states also “followed form” and permitted zones that the states had previously selected to be OZs to also be eligible for state benefits which would be the same as the federal benefits that existed under the program (i.e., (1) deferral of capital gains until 12-31-2026 (the “Deferral Benefit“); (2) potential reduction of the amount that is subject to tax by 15% if gain eligible dollars were invested into a qualified opportunity zone fund in 2018 or 2019, or 10% if gain eligible dollars were invested into a qualified opportunity zone fund in 2020 or 2021 (the “Reduction Benefit“); and, (3) if the investor followed the rules of the OZ Program and invested an amount of gain eligible dollars into a QOF (the “fund”) and left its investment in the QOF for 10 years or more, and, thereafter the QOF sold the property or the business it owned after the 10 year period but before 12-31-2047, then all gain on the sale of the business or real estate would NOT be subject to federal capital gains tax (the “Exclusion Benefit”). By electing to follow form, the states that did so, elected to have the Deferral Benefit, the Reduction Benefit and the Exclusion Benefit also apply at the state level on gains that would have otherwise been payable to the state; meaning the applicable states would also permit investments in their applicable OZ areas to obtain a state level Deferral Benefit, Reduction Benefit and the Exclusion Benefit.

New York, like all of its adjacent neighboring states, was one of the states that enacted legislation to incent Opportunity Zone investments by permitted such OZ benefits at the state level (i.e., the Deferral Benefit, the Reduction Benefit and the Exclusion Benefit at the New York level).

Under the 2021 New York budget proposal, the New York Deferral Benefit and the New York Reduction Benefits at the New York level would NO LONGER be applicable. The result of this change is that investors in New York businesses in the New York OZs and in real estate in the New York OZ, will no longer receive the same benefits as neighboring states, which could result in investors looking at these other adjacent states first or in a more meaningful way, given that the state level OZ incentives exist there rather than in New York.

While some commentators have stated this will “deal[] another blow to the program and developers taking advantage of it”, my personal view is that the benefits being eliminated in the budget process (i.e., deferral of capital gains payments until 12-31-2026 and reduction of the amount subject to tax by 10% if investment was made in 2020 or 2021), are not the real driver of the OZ program and the massive amount of investment that has occurred in the low and moderate income opportunity zones nationally since the enactment of the OZ program – rather, it is the Exclusion Benefit, which is NOT being eliminated in New York, that is the main driver of behavior in the OZs.

Even with the New York budget modifications, New York’s 514 census tracts included in the program will still qualify for federal tax incentives for investing in these distressed areas and the New York Exclusion Benefit will still apply.

Follow The Yellow Brick Road: So, has New York cut off its nose to spite its face? Slightly, as some investors who are seeking both federal and state benefits to justify a more difficult project will likely look elsewhere. That said, the real driver of transactions in the OZ space as noted above is the Exclusion Benefit which applies once one has been invested in the applicable opportunity zone for 10 years or more, and this benefit, notwithstanding the New York change, will still exist at BOTH the federal and New York state level. On balance, while the budget change sounds like a big move and strikes a blow for anti-Trump sentiment, in reality, the real opportunity of the OZ program in hopefully creating jobs for local residents will remain and the Exclusion Benefit driver will remain in tact and continue to provide a reinforcer for this type of behavior.

Duane Morris has an active Tax Credits and Opportunity Zone Team to help organizations and individuals plan, respond to, and invest in Opportunity Zones and low income areas throughout the USA, including the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico using tax credit equity and standard equity. We have closed over 73 OZ deals since their inception and are actively working on over 33 OZ projects for owner/developers, investors and business owners. We would be happy to discussion your proposed project with you. Contact your Duane Morris attorney for more information. Prior Alerts on the topic are available on the team’s webpage.

If you have any questions about this post, please contact Brad A. Molotsky, Art Momjian, Scott Gluck, Lee Potter, Keli Isaacson Whitlock, Anastasios Kastrinakis, or the attorney in the firm with whom you are regularly in contact.

Take care and stay safe.

February 18, 2021 by Brad A. Molotsky

OZ: Bi-Partisan Legislation introduced to extend OZ investment period to 2028

Who says our Congress is not interested in bi-partisan legislation?

U.S. Representatives Tim Burchett (TN-02) and Henry Cuellar (TX-28) introduced a bi-partisan piece of legislation entitled the Opportunity Zone Extension Act of 2021. This bipartisan legislation would extend the Opportunity Zones program until the end of 2028.

“The Opportunity Zones program was making a difference in East Tennessee communities and underserved areas around the country before the COVID-19 pandemic rocked our economy,” Rep. Burchett said. “Extending this program would give investors additional time to provide meaningful financial support to businesses and create quality, good paying jobs in Opportunity Zones.”

According to Congressman Henry Cuellar. “This critical legislation will help stimulate economic growth, job creation, and provide support to underdeveloped communities. Through this legislation we will be able to help accelerate our economy’s recovery from the pandemic. I am committed to making sure everyone has access to opportunity and can achieve the American dream.”

Currently, the Opportunity Zones program allows participating investors to defer taxes on capital gains that are invested in designated Opportunity Zones until the end of 2026. Rep. Burchett’s and Rep. Cuellar’s bill would extend this date and allows capital gains to be deferred until the end of 2028.

Opportunity Zones are located in economically distressed areas across the United States.

According to the sponsors, extending the Opportunity Zones program by 2 years is intended to attract private sector investment in underserved communities, building on pre-pandemic success and helping them come back stronger than before.

While it is too early to tell if this piece of OZ extension legislation is likely to get any legs given the current pressures on Congress, its bi-partisan support puts it in good stead for future conversation and, potentially for action, once Congress deals with the current Covid bill and likely an infrastructure bill. We will keep our eyes and ears open and report back on developments on this front.

Duane Morris has an active Tax Credits and Opportunity Zone Team to help organizations and individuals plan, respond to, and invest in Opportunity Zones and low income areas throughout the USA, including the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico using tax credit equity and standard equity. We have closed over 63 OZ deals since their inception and are actively working on over 33 OZ projects for owner/developers, investors and business owners. We would be happy to discussion your proposed project with you. Contact your Duane Morris attorney for more information. Prior Alerts on the topic are available on the team’s webpage.

If you have any questions about this post, please contact Brad A. Molotsky, Art Momjian, Scott Gluck, Lee Potter, Keli Isaacson Whitlock, Anastasios Kastrinakis, or the attorney in the firm with whom you are regularly in contact.

Take care and stay safe.