Governor Lamont Announces Launch of Online Tool to Attract Investment in Connecticut Opportunity Zones

Governor Ned Lamont on Wednesday morning delivered welcoming remarks at the 2019 Connecticut Opportunity Zones Conference, hosted by the Department of Economic and Community Development at the Omni Hotel in New Haven. [Download in high quality]

(NEW HAVEN, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont today welcomed guests to the State of Connecticut’s marquee conference on opportunity zones that was attended by over 400 investors, developers, and municipal leaders, who convened to hear about the state’s new approach to enhance existing opportunity zones, including the launch of a new online tool designed to attract investment in Connecticut.

Available at www.ctopportunityzones.com, the tool provides a searchable database of available projects with updated information provided by cities, towns, and property owners. The database includes shovel-ready projects, transit-oriented development, and relevant facts about local geography in Connecticut. Municipalities that have opportunity zones will be able to post and promote projects as they become available, making the database increasingly robust over time.

An opportunity zone is a recently established federal designation created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 to incentivize long-term investment typically in lower-income areas through certain advantages such as payment deferment. Connecticut has 72 opportunity zones that are located in 27 municipalities.

Governor Lamont explained that the state will encourage development in local areas with opportunity zones through enhanced incentives and potential matchmaking. Today’s conference, which was held in New Haven, included a matchmaking session where municipalities were able to pitch directly to investors through scheduled meetings, along with informal networking.

“A lot of states want to take this approach, but only a handful are able to actually get it implemented,” said Governor Lamont. “We’ve seen the markets respond positively to our recent efforts to fix our transit, stabilize our state budget, and responsibly manage our debt. We’ve also heard from a lot of new investors about their renewed interest demonstrated by the range of new projects launched over the last year. It’s a smart time to look at what Connecticut has to offer, including its top-notch schools, talented workforce, and convenient geography.”

Governor Ned Lamont on Wednesday morning delivered welcoming remarks at the 2019 Connecticut Opportunity Zones Conference, hosted by the Department of Economic and Community Development at the Omni Hotel in New Haven. [Download in high quality]

“We are committed to doing everything we can to help the state maximize the benefits of our opportunity zones, and this online tool is one of our first steps,” said David Kooris, deputy commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD), who has taken a leading role on behalf of the administration in the area of opportunity zones. “We are also working with municipalities across the state to streamline things like regulations and permits to make it as easy as possible for investors to bring projects to the zones.”

One of the features of the state’s new online tool is an interactive mapping tool that makes it easier for investors and project sponsors to learn more about the benefits of Connecticut’s opportunity zones. The zones can also be searched by multiple categories including municipality, investment size, and real estate and business asset types. Users can also gauge the proximity of opportunity zones to key locations, including colleges and universities, airports, ports, and historic districts. More in-depth project overviews, including funding, permit, and zoning information are also available.

DECD will continue working with municipalities to build out the database and make the tool increasingly beneficial to users over time.