Opportunity Zone Activity Rebounds From COVID-19 Slowdown - PRNewswire

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DALLAS, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Investment activity in Qualified Opportunity Zones (QOZ) rebounded in the aftermath of the pandemic's initial impact on the commercial real estate market, according to BBG, a leading due diligence commercial real estate firm.

Activity in investment and ongoing projects in Opportunity Zones, along with other commercial real estate investments, declined following the stock market's plunge in March, triggered by investor concerns over the spreading COVID-19's impact on the economy.

However, activity picked up again later in the spring largely due to investors taking capital gains from money pulled from the stock market and funneling it into QOZ funds. According to industry sources, when investors and developers returned to closing deals and beginning new projects, it made the program the most active in the commercial real estate market.

In other COVID-related news impacting Opportunity Zones, the Internal Revenue Service announced earlier this month that it extended the deadline to invest capital gains in Opportunity Zones funds and provided other forms of tax relief for the program as a result of the pandemic.

Opportunity Zones, created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Acts of 2017, give investors the ability to defer or eliminate federal tax payments on capital gains, which could create billions of dollars in tax breaks for commercial real estate projects across the country. The program, designed to spur redevelopment in economically disadvantaged areas, has roughly 8,700 census tracts in designated Opportunity Zones.

"The ability of Opportunity Zones to bounce back from the impact of a coronavirus-fueled selloff in the financial markets readily attests to the program's viability and growing investor demand for these tax-deferred real-estate investments," said BBG Senior Managing Director C. Grant Griffin. "BBG has special expertise in providing appraisal, assessment and advisory services that are tailored to Opportunity Zones' unique due diligence requirements."

For more details on BBG services for Opportunity Zones, please contact C. Grant Griffin at [email protected] or call (770) 777-6128.

About BBG
BBG offers comprehensive due diligence services including valuation, advisory, property assessment, energy services, cost segregation, and zoning. Headquartered in Dallas, the firm has 36 offices in key US markets and more than 2,700 clients. As one of the Big Five national commercial real estate valuation firms, BBG has achieved a reputation for personal attention, on-time delivery and deep expertise in multi-family, office, retail and industrial sectors. For more information about BBG, please visit www.bbgres.com.

Media Contact
Marc Weinstein
Ascent Communications
(908) 967-9958
[email protected]

SOURCE BBG