Northwest Ohio will gain 35 new federal Opportunity Zones on Jan. 1, 2027, part of a 260-tract statewide map Gov. Mike DeWine announced Thursday, Nov. 5, after the U.S. Department of the Treasury approved every tract the DeWine administration nominated, according to the Governor of Ohio’s official release. The designations use federal tax incentives to steer outside investment toward housing development, business expansion, job creation and community revitalization in economically distressed areas, the release says, and the new zones stay in effect through 2036.
The Northwest Ohio total comes from the county-by-county list in the Governor of Ohio’s release: Lucas County receives 16 tracts, by far the region’s largest share, followed by Allen County with five, Crawford and Erie counties with two each, and one tract each in Defiance, Hancock, Hardin, Huron, Ottawa, Sandusky, Seneca, Van Wert, Williams and Wood counties. Firelands Current, reporting the local breakdown on Friday, Nov. 6, led with the shore counties — two Erie County tracts and one each in Huron, Ottawa and Sandusky — and 95.3 WLKR carried the announcement in its Friday local news as well.
“Every community in Ohio has something special to offer, and we want to make sure they have the opportunity to thrive,” Gov. Mike DeWine said in the Governor of Ohio’s Nov. 5 release. “Whether it’s bringing new life to a downtown, creating great-paying jobs, or building housing for more families, these Opportunity Zones will help attract investments that can make a real difference in the lives of Ohioans,” he said in the same release.
Ohio Department of Development Director Lydia Mihalik pointed to the demand behind the map, in the Governor of Ohio’s release: “The incredible response we received from communities across Ohio shows just how much potential exists in every corner of our state,” Mihalik said in the release. “By working with our local partners to identify these areas, we’re empowering more communities to attract new businesses, strengthen their neighborhoods, and provide better lives for the people who call them home,” she said in the release. The Department of Development received 951 nominations covering 515 of Ohio’s 1,040 eligible census tracts through a statewide survey, according to the Governor of Ohio’s release, and 96 of the 260 tracts ultimately chosen sit in rural communities.
The new map is the second generation of the program. Federal Opportunity Zones were established in 2017 to encourage private investment in distressed communities through tax benefits, according to the Governor of Ohio’s release, and Ohio’s first round in 2018 designated 320 tracts across 73 counties — 60 more than the new map. Under the permanent Opportunity Zones 2.0 framework Congress enacted in 2025, states must redesignate eligible zones every 10 years, the release says. Seventy-eight of the new Ohio tracts were also in the original 2018 program, so parts of Northwest Ohio — including tracts that carried the incentive through its first decade — keep continuity into the new round.
Investment-driven development is already a live theme in the region’s economy. In October, CRG broke ground on 911,000 square feet of new industrial space at Etna, and Toledo recently hosted the first North American EV Innovation Summit at the Glass City Center — the kind of private capital the zone incentives are built to attract into designated neighborhoods.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: the 260 Ohio tracts are designated, Treasury-approved and effective Jan. 1, 2027 through 2036, and the Governor of Ohio’s release fixes the county counts above — Northwest Ohio’s other counties in our region, including Auglaize, Fulton, Henry, Mercer, Paulding, Putnam and Wyandot, do not appear on the Governor’s list for this round. What we’re still waiting on: the street-level boundaries of each tract in plain-language form, and any specific project announcements tied to the new zones. As Firelands Current cautioned in its Nov. 6 reporting, the designations announce no particular construction projects, investment amounts or job numbers — those depend on investors and local partners stepping forward once the zones go live.
What happens next is a Jan. 1, 2027 start line. From that date, investors working through Qualified Opportunity Funds can use the new map, and local governments, developers and businesses in the 35 Northwest Ohio tracts will need to check specific parcels against the official tract list published with the Governor of Ohio’s release and the Treasury’s CDFI Fund list before assuming eligibility. Ohio also runs a separate state Opportunity Zones Tax Credit Program — a different process from the federal designation — and the Ohio Department of Development directs questions about it to [email protected], according to Firelands Current’s reporting.
Photo: Andre Carrotflower, CC BY-SA 4.0