After months of applications, letters of support, and waiting, your community has made the state's Opportunity Zone nomination list. That is welcome news, and it raises a practical question: What should we do now?
For municipalities, counties, port authorities, and economic development organizations across Ohio, preparation ahead of the January 2027 OZ 2.0 activation can begin immediately. The first round of Opportunity Zones taught a clear lesson: OZ capital goes where it is welcome. Communities that organize early, signal openness to OZ investment, and present investment-ready project pipelines and prospectuses are the ones that win it.
Start with the opportunities you already know. The vacant building downtown. The industrial property that needs a new use. The housing development that has struggled to secure financing. Investors will need to understand what is possible, what it will cost, and who is ready to move it forward.
Local leaders can begin connecting those pieces now. This guide explains what nomination means, what to prepare for 2027, and where to find resources that can help.
Understand your tract's status
A state nomination is an important milestone; federal certification establishes the designation. Tracts certified in 2026 receive a 10-year designation period running from January 1, 2027, through December 31, 2036.
Ohio: announcement date, nomination or certification status, tract count, and direct map link. Wil is sending this when it is available.
Every nominated tract by county, how the map changed from OZ 1.0, and how much of it is rural.
Official updates are available through the Ohio Department of Development.
What does OZ designation actually provide?
Opportunity Zones offer federal tax benefits for eligible capital gains invested through a Qualified Opportunity Fund, or QOF. Designation does not award a grant or guarantee financing. It does, however, have a proven track record: according to the Economic Innovation Group (EIG), QOFs deployed $112 billion in equity through 2024, and 77% of originally designated tracts, rural and urban alike, attracted investment.
- Equity deployed by QOFs through 2024
- $112B
- Equity deployed by QOFs through 2024
- Of original OZ tracts attracted investment
- 77%
- Of original OZ tracts attracted investment
- Designation period, 2027 through 2036
- 10 years
- Designation period, 2027 through 2036
For qualifying investments made beginning in 2027, benefits include capital gain deferral for up to five years, a 10% basis increase after five years (30% for qualifying rural projects), and potential exclusion of investment appreciation after a qualifying ten-year holding period.
For local leaders, the practical implication is straightforward: projects still need predictable permitting, zoning to attract businesses, infrastructure, and a financing plan. OZ status can strengthen an investment opportunity, but the underlying project must be able to attract and sustain private capital. Because QOFs must deploy capital on fixed statutory timelines, they favor places where the path to approval is already clear.
What should communities do in the first 90 days?
Attracting capital for local community development is a 10-year marathon, not a sprint. Still, communities that get a head start now will be better positioned to steer development to projects with local impact. The following schedule is a suggested work plan, rather than a federal deadline.
- Days 1-30
Confirm tract boundaries, appoint a local contact, convene partners and anchor institutions, and identify priority sites.
GoalA coordinated local team and an initial project inventory.
- Days 31-60
Engage property owners and sponsors; review ownership, zoning, utilities, environmental conditions, market demand, and preliminary costs.
GoalA shortlist of projects with documented opportunities and constraints.
- Days 61-90
Prepare project summaries, identify funding gaps, and begin targeted conversations with development advisors, local investors, lenders, and QOFs.
GoalA project pipeline ready for substantive market feedback.
What information will investors need?
A strong investment prospectus should make a project easier to evaluate. Begin with a concise summary for each priority site, supported by documents that can be shared during due diligence. Include:
Property and ownership: Address, parcel numbers, acreage or building size, ownership, and availability for sale, lease, or partnership.
Development opportunity: Proposed use, market demand, prospective tenants or operators, and an identified project sponsor.
Site conditions: Zoning, utility capacity, transportation access, environmental conditions, floodplain exposure, and known constraints.
Project economics: Preliminary development costs, committed financing, estimated equity needs, and remaining funding gaps.
Public support: Relevant plans, available incentives, funded infrastructure, publicly owned land available for development, local lending partners, required approvals, and responsible agencies.
Multifamily housing and adaptive reuse were the most common OZ project types in the first round, so a prospectus should feature housing opportunities prominently. Keep it current, ideally as a web page, and use it for targeted outreach to developers, businesses, and QOFs.
What is the local government's role?
Local leaders know the properties and projects that could make a difference in their communities. OZ nomination is a good reason to take a fresh look at what has held those opportunities back, and what it would take to move them forward. The communities that benefited most from the first round focused on the following areas:
Mobilize local investors and anchors. Start by bringing together property owners, local officials, utilities, and economic development partners around a few priority projects. Hospitals, universities, major employers, regional banks, and CDFIs can anchor early deals, and outside investors are more likely to commit once local investors have a stake.
Is there an owner willing to sell or partner? Does the site have the infrastructure it needs? Is there demand for the proposed use? These conversations help distinguish promising ideas from opportunities ready for serious investment.
Make investment easy. Then look at the path a project would need to follow. Does the zoning support the development your community wants? Are permitting requirements clear, and can staff explain the approvals, costs, and likely timeline? Addressing conflicting requirements or unclear responsibilities early gives prospective developers a better understanding of what to expect.
Prepare your pitch to investors. The next step is to organize information into an investment prospectus: a practical guide to your community's opportunities. It should introduce priority properties, explain their development potential, identify available infrastructure and incentives, and be candid about remaining hurdles. Each project should have a clear next step and a person to contact.
Get involved at the project level. Communities can contribute publicly owned land at nominal cost, commit to anchor tenancy, or co-invest alongside private capital.
Champion your assets. Those investment materials also need an audience. Publish them where prospective partners can find them, share them through regional and state development networks, and use them to support targeted outreach to developers, businesses, and Qualified Opportunity Funds. A well-prepared site visit or introduction can turn a general expression of interest into a substantive project discussion.
Multiply the impact. Connect residents to construction jobs and apprenticeships, and help local entrepreneurs and small developers compete for new space and projects.
Each step requires coordination across agencies, owners, and capital partners, and an experienced advisor can help a community move faster and avoid missteps that stall promising projects.
Why rural status matters
For smaller communities across Ohio, OZ 2.0 offers two additional benefits that could help attract investment and bring older properties back into use.
A lower renovation requirement: The substantial-improvement threshold for qualifying rural property is reduced from 100% to 50% of adjusted basis. Developers renovating rural properties can meet the program's improvement requirement with half the spending required elsewhere. For example, a building with a tax basis of $200,000, excluding land, would generally require more than $100,000 in qualifying improvements within 30 months, rather than more than $200,000 in an urban area. This can make it more feasible to put a vacant storefront, warehouse, or industrial building back to work.
A larger tax benefit for investors: Beginning in 2027, investors who put eligible capital gains into a Qualified Rural Opportunity Fund and hold the investment for at least five years can exclude 30% of those original gains from taxation, compared with just 10% under the OZ 1.0 rules. This gives investors an additional reason to consider projects in qualifying rural communities.
For local leaders, this is a good time to revisit properties that have struggled to attract interest. Update your inventory of available sites, speak with owners, and identify where water, sewer, road access, or electric capacity could limit development. Work with utilities and development partners to understand the costs and timing of needed improvements.
Smaller communities can also work together to present a broader selection of investment opportunities and share the work of preparing materials and reaching prospective investors. These incentives can help open the door; clear information and a practical development plan will help move the conversation forward.
Pair OZ capital with state and local tools
OZ equity may form one part of a broader financing package. Communities should identify which brownfield and historic tax credits, tax increment financing, infrastructure funds, redevelopment programs, and workforce resources fit each project.
Ohio: Opportunity Zones Tax Credit. The Ohio legislature is invested in making OZ projects work. Ohio offers a separate, nonrefundable tax credit equal to 10% of qualifying investment deployed through an eligible Ohio QOF into Ohio OZ property. Few other states offer such add-on benefits. The state program has its own fund requirements, application periods, allocation limits, and documentation rules.
Ohio amended the program in 2026, and the next application window runs January 11-18, 2027. Project sponsors should review the current requirements before assuming an investment qualifies.
Review Ohio's Opportunity Zones Tax Credit program and guidelines.
Prepare for 2027
A useful starting point is a working session with local officials, economic development partners, utilities, property owners, and prospective project sponsors. Identify the strongest opportunities, assign responsibility for missing information, and agree on the next steps.
Many communities, particularly smaller and rural ones, lack the staff capacity to carry a project from concept to closing on their own. LNE Group brings hands-on experience in economic development, public funding, and government affairs, working alongside local leaders and their partners to turn designated tracts into investment-ready projects.
Other helpful resources
Program information reviewed October 27, 2026. Project-specific tax eligibility and investment structures require review by qualified legal and tax advisers.