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Since its launch more than a year ago, the qualified opportunity zones program has been both celebrated and criticized. The program was designed to encourage private investment in underdeveloped or disadvantaged areas by allowing investors to defer capital gains tax on income invested in the zones.
The ability to defer taxes was welcome news to investors. Stakeholders in these areas also appreciate how the new law is making their areas more attractive. However, many are questioning whether the areas selected are actually underserved. In some areas, land prices in the opportunity zones are not significantly lower than those outside of them.
Here in the Puget Sound, the zones seem to be well-placed, according to Nitze-Stagen CEO Peter Nitze and Smartcap co-founder and President Tim Shoultz. Both will be discussing the topic at Bisnow’s Seattle Opportunity Zones event March 20.
Both have already invested in opportunity zone properties and see great potential. For Nitze, the zones fit right in to where his firm has been investing all along.
“We’ve had a long-standing commitment to the areas that are now designated opportunity zones,” he said. “This creates a powerful tool to…
Read the full story here.
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Top Stories on Bisnow.com
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NorthMarq Secures $29.2M Refi For Bothell Multifamily
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NorthMarq’s Seattle regional office recently secured the $29.2M refinance of the Edition Apartments. Edition Apartments is a 135-unit multifamily property at 18420 102nd Ave. NE in Bothell.
The transaction was structured with a 10-year term on a 30-year amortization schedule. NorthMarq arranged financing with the… Read Full Story
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Seattle Apartment Market Softens In 2018 After Long Run Of Growth
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Multifamily property sales in urban King County, which includes the Seattle area, softened slightly in 2018 despite setting a record for price per square foot, according to Colliers International’s 2019 Apartment Market Study done by Colliers Multifamily team members Dylan Simon and Read Full Story
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Technology Helps Tunnel Travelers Stay Safe
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The Highway 99 Tunnel may not be easing Seattle’s gridlock, but at least tunnel travelers will get cell service while they are stuck in traffic 200 feet underground. Thanks to a network of technology systems, there is strong cell service the entire length of the tunnel as well as… Read Full Story
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Can Indoor Farming Fulfill The Dream Of Opportunity Zones?
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Opportunity zones and indoor farms are both new frontiers for investment, and one company is seeking to combine them.
Zale Tabakman has developed a concept for an indoor farm that grows greens, herbs and vegetables using modular construction, called Local Grown Salads. One LGS farm would be 15K SF and fabricated off-site almost entirely — even the HVAC system, often one of the costliest elements of construction. All the site needs is for the walls, floor and ceiling to be sealed and the water and power to be connected to the grid.
“It’s like installing a giant washing machine into a building,” Tabakman, who is based in Ontario, Canada, told Bisnow.
Read the full story here.
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'We've Got To Be Prepared': Amazon's Arrival Puts Pressure On Region To Prove Critics Wrong
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As Amazon prepares to hire 25,000 workers in Northern Virginia over the next decade, and with an untold number of companies predicted to grow around the tech giant, the implications for Greater Washington's already-strained housing and transportation systems are enormous.
Amazon HQ2 is expected to spur additional growth in the area's technology industry and create new demand for an office market that has struggled with high vacancy, potentially filling its empty space and leading to new construction. The region's top political and business leaders, speaking last week at Bisnow's Amazon HQ2 event, looked ahead at the potential challenges and opportunities HQ2 could bring to the area and discussed how to begin addressing them.
Read the full story here.
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How Dogs, Bars And Coffee Shops Convinced Amazon To Come To Arlington
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Amazon was focused on talent pipelines and incentives when it was looking for a place to put its second headquarters, but when its executives visited Arlington last year, a handful of community interactions helped convince them that it was the place to come.
Amazon global economic development head Holly Sullivan, speaking Thursday morning at Bisnow’s Amazon HQ2-Apalooza event, said the company dispatched an employee to take the temperature of the Arlington community when it was deciding whether it should bring its 25,000-plus jobs to the area.
Read the full story here.
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EB-5 Fund USIF Sued For Racketeering By Representative Of Chinese Investors
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A Chicago-based Chinese-American researcher named Xuejun Makhsous, also known as Zoe Ma, has opened a new battlefront in her war with the U.S. Immigration Fund, a company that bundles foreign money to be loaned to developers for U.S.-based projects.
Last year, USIF sued Makhsous for defamation in New York State Supreme Court. Now, Makhsous has filed a federal lawsuit in Illinois that accuses USIF and its sometime partner, Qiaowai — a Beijing-based company that rounds up investors in China — of conspiring and operating "a criminal enterprise" under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly referred to as a RICO suit.
RICO typically targets ongoing criminal organizations and has been used to prosecute Mafia cases. Makhsous claims that USIF and Qiaowai work together to defraud investors and circumvent Chinese and American securities law.
Read the full story here.
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Amazon Plans To Open Its Own Line Of Non-Whole Foods Grocery Stores
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