Development officials and community leaders along the Lake to River corridor are preparing to capitalize on last week’s announcement that 20 local census tracts have been designated federal Opportunity Zones, The Business Journal Daily reported Monday. The tracts, in Ashtabula, Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties, were among 260 Ohio tracts designated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
The designations were announced November 5 by the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service, which said 6,576 census tracts nationwide were designated as Qualified Opportunity Zones across all 50 states, U.S. territories and the District of Columbia. The new designations take effect January 1, 2027, and remain in place for ten years, according to the IRS announcement.
Opportunity Zones are economically distressed census tracts where qualifying private investments may receive preferential tax treatment. The Business Journal Daily reported that corridor leaders and development officials hailed the announcement, which gives communities in the four-county Lake to River region a decade-long window to steer private capital toward housing, business expansion and job creation.
Ohio’s 260 designated tracts were nominated by the DeWine administration and approved in full by the Treasury Department. Announcing the Ohio list, Gov. Mike DeWine and Ohio Department of Development Director Lydia Mihalik said the “Opportunity Zones 2.0” round is intended to strengthen paths for long-term investment and economic growth in more communities across the state.
The federal announcement said the Opportunity Zone incentive was permanently renewed under the Working Families Tax Cuts, with enhanced incentives added for investment in eligible rural communities and a process established for redesignating zones every ten years. Of the 6,576 tracts designated nationwide, 2,594 are in rural areas eligible for the enhanced benefits, according to the IRS.
The designations followed a nomination process that began July 1, during which states selected eligible tracts for consideration. Treasury and the IRS had identified 25,332 eligible census tracts nationwide in April, and every tract nominated by the end of the statutory window was designated, the agencies said. A full list and map of the designated zones, with poverty-rate and median-family-income data for each tract, is available from the Treasury Department.
For corridor communities, the work now shifts from designation to deal-making. Local development officials will spend the months before the January 1, 2027 effective date identifying projects and properties inside the 20 tracts that could attract Opportunity Zone investment once the ten-year window opens.