Case Study
Opportunity Zone equity was paired with Historic Tax Credits to support the transformation of an underutilized 125-year-old building on Lehigh University’s campus into 30 apartments and new retail space in South Bethlehem. Reinventing this space is part of Lehigh’s strategy to demonstrate their commitment to community, revitalize South Bethlehem, and continue campus expansion as the university grows. Opportunity Zone incentives, coupled with a committed developer and community development focused financing, funded this project.
Links to relevant articles:
Case Study
The university serves as an anchor in The Dayton Arcade project which restored a 9-building complex in downtown Dayton. The project includes affordable and market-rate units, University of Dayton and the Entrepreneurs Center’s Arcade Innovation Hub, leasable office and retail space, and event space. The Arcade is part of a larger plan by the City of Dayton to bring residents, jobs, and visitors back to the downtown. Across the street from the Arcade is the new Levitt Pavilion – an outdoor live music venue that offers 50 free concerts each year. The Levitt is at the center of “The Nine”, a nine-block redevelopment strategy led by the city that builds on existing underutilized assets to build a premiere downtown urban neighborhood centered around a central park.
Links to relevant articles:
Case Study
Western Colorado University’s ICELab is a “community organization with a keen interest in mountain town sustainability and economic diversity in rural Western Colorado.” The lab provides startups and growing businesses affordable coworking/office space as well as an Incubator Program.
In addition to serving as a space for community engagement and business incubation, ICELab is a nonprofit intermediary in applying for and deploying Opportunity Zone Mini Grants from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT). Recently, OEDIT awarded ICELab with two grants on behalf of two private companies using Opportunity Zones for their community-oriented projects. One project is a sustainable hotel and the other a workforce housing development called Gunnison Rising sponsored by Williford LLC in the land use and affordable housing space.
Links to relevant articles:
Case Study
The Warwick Hotel has been abandoned since Hurricane Katrina. The 154 room hotel, with its 1950s-era modernist architecture, opened in 1952. Tulane University signed a lease on Warwick and the structure will be completely renovated using opportunity zone money from the New Orleans Redevelopment Fund. The apartments, now called Thirteen15, will house graduate students, doctors, researchers, faculty who are tied into Tulane’s nearby Medical School.
Tulane also will be the anchor tenant of the refurbished Charity Hospital around the corner, another property that has been unoccupied since Hurricane Katrina 15 years ago and which is slated for a $300 million rehabilitation. Tulane will be leasing 350,000 square feet of space, 100,000 square feet of which will be converted into laboratory facilities, with the rest given over to teaching space, offices and study areas, to serve approximately 1,000 staff and students.
“The Warwick and Charity projects are prime opportunities to exponentially expand the university’s size and research mission, while also bolstering the creation of a robust research and commercialization ecosystem in the heart of the city,” Tulane President Mike Fitts said in a news release.
Links to relevant articles:
Case Study
As soon as it became clear that Stillman would be located in a Opportunity Zone, the school’s president seized the opportunity to enlist the support of potential private equity partners, the City of Tuscaloosa, and consultants to develop investment projects for the school’s vacant and unused property holdings. As a result, Stillman College has developed plans to build three projects: 100 units of workforce housing for its faculty, administration, staff; redevelopment of an existing, vacant student dormitory for senior student housing; and a hotel (which has been postponed for COVID-19 reasons).
Stillman College signed a memorandum of understanding with partners in a project to build a 125-room hotel on the college campus to serve as a teaching center for the school’s hospitality management program. Also a part of the project is mixed-use residential and commercial space, including market-rate housing for faculty, graduate students and the surrounding community. The plan is for the project to be sold back to Stillman College for its long-term use at the end of a 10-year holding period, with the cash flowing back to the college. The primary investor is the Renaissance HBCU Opportunity Fund, an Opportunity Fund, that provides assistance and financing to historically black colleges and universities.
Links to relevant articles:
Case Study
Using a $1.25M grant from the Economic Development Administration and matching local OZ funds, the University plans to expand its efactory business incubator in Springfield, MO. According to Missouri State, this investment is expected to create “360 jobs and spur $27 million in private investment.” The efactory opened in March 2013 with the goal of serving entrepreneurs and business owners in southwest Missouri. Their programming includes providing support to large and small businesses through mentorship, accelerator programs, and networking opportunities.