If you just landed here from Mars, it may be your first hearing of an Opportunity Zone.
But if you have driven down Ellerbe Road in the Spring Lake area (and south), you should have noticed an expansion of commercial construction. All this is in an Opportunity Zone.
Downtown Shreveport and a huge area in Bossier are in Opportunity Zones.
So what’s the deal? What’s the opportunity? What’s the zone?
It’s really pretty simple. There are big tax breaks available that make a good investment an even better one.
Yes, there are rules that must be followed. But what else is new with the IRS??
Opportunity Zones offer investors incentives for putting their capital to work in designated low-income areas. Many include desirable commercial locations.
Investing in Opportunity Zones defers and lowers federal taxes on capital gains. Tax savings start after five years. The maximum advantage is to hold the business and or property for 10 years.
Example: a developer buys and renovates a building in downtown Shreveport at a cost of $2.5 million. Then he holds the business and property for 10 years and decides to sell at $4 million. The capital gains of 1.5 million is exempt from capital gains tax!
In Shreveport there are 5 designated Opportunity Zones: Downtown/Cross Bayou, Cedar Grove, Hollywood/Mooretown, West Shreveport, and MLK area. These areas are larger than the zone designations may imply.
The Bossier City Opportunity Zone is just south of I-20 and Airline. It runs north along Airline to I-220 and east to Swan Lake and I-220 and along I-20 at Industrial and north to I-220…its huge!
There are many more details that are part of the Opportunity Zone program. Quite frankly they are beyond the scope---and yes, understanding, of this writer.
A good contact person for more information is Brandon Fail, Shreveport's Director of Economic Development.
Brandon.Fail@shreveportLa.gov | 318-517-1685
