7 Must-Do Tasks Before Creating an Opportunity Zone Strategy

Seven must-do tasks before creating an Opportunity Zone strategy include assessing housing needs; gauging commercial market conditions in your community; identifying key economic drivers; analyzing your community workforce; seeking available tools for economic growth; collaborating with existing partners; and finding the right experts to help guide you through this process. Let's take a deeper dive into these.

Things To Do Before Creating Your Opportunity Zone Strategy

1. Assess Your Community's Housing Needs

Housing is a basic human need and increasing the quality of affordable housing is a priority for most communities. By providing residents and potential residents a variety of housing options at varying price points you can build a stronger and more inclusive community.

2. Gauge Commercial Market Conditions

Having a firm understanding of the current conditions of the local commercial real estate market is crucial for economic developers and community leaders who are looking to create an Opportunity Zone strategy. Economic developers and community leaders should conduct a commercial real estate assessment to better understand current office, retail hotel, and industrial uses in your Opportunity Zones.

3. Identify Economic Drivers and Growth Sectors

Developers who serve commercial markets and investors who finance new business enterprises will both want to understand the overall economic strategy and trajectory of your community.

4. Analyze Your Community's Workforce

The best way for you and potential investors to determine the success of your Opportunity Zone projects is by looking at the status and prospects of your local workforce. Commercial developers recruiting companies as tenants for new projects need to know a skilled workforce is available nearby.

5. Research Availab Economic Development Tools

Before anyone invests in a new business enterprise in your community, they're going to want to know not just where growth is coming from, but how your community supports it. Economic developers and community leaders need to be prepared to explain the entire range of economic development tools available to support Opportunity Zone development.

6. Collaborate With Existing Partners

You can build a strong economic base for your Opportunity Zone communities with frequent communication and collaboration between local jurisdictions, community development agencies, nonprofits, philanthropic foundations, and education institutions. A strong community base of support is going to attract investors to your Opportunity Zones.

7. Find Experts to Help You Through This Process

All this research and planning can be overwhelming. How can you do this on top of all your other work? Easy! Partner with Golden Shovel Agency to not only research your community's unique Opportunity Zones but to help you build and market a prospectus that will attract investors to your community.

As the national leader in economic development strategy and marketing, Golden Shovel Agency is ready to help you create an effective Opportunity Zone marketing plan that aligns with the goals you have to make sure every part of your community thrives. Our professional team, economic development experience, and cutting-edge marketing tools and strategies have earned the trust of over 240 communities in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. Give us a call today!

Download the Step-by-Step Guide to Marketing Opportunity Zones