Opportunity Zone Magazine Volume 1, Issue 3 | Page 52

52 OPPORTUNITY ZONE MAGAZINE | VOLUME 1 • ISSUE 3
OPPORTUNITY ZONES
AND ECONOMIC IMPACT:
A PRACTICAL FUND
APPROACH
By Natalie Elder, Leonard Mills
and Stephanie Smith
The OZ program is built to enable sustainable and positive economic impact, and the approach
to doing so is practical. Here are the tools.
The Opportunity Zone (OZ) program has started to take
shape in communities nationwide. And with things
getting off the ground for participants in the OZ market,
it’s critical that proponents stay on course with the true intent
of the policy. But what does economic impact in OZs mean
exactly? And how can Qualified Opportunity Funds (QOF)
help achieve this desired impact?
DEFINING ECONOMIC IMPACT GOALS AND OBJECTIVES IN
OZs
Commentators have ascribed a myriad of economic policy
goals to the OZ provision of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of
2017. Since this legislation is tax policy, it is beneficial to
follow the policy goals as articulated by the Internal Revenue
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