Travis County Tops Opp Zone List
There are 35 opportunity zones within the Austin metro area and 21 within the limits of Travis County, which has the sixth highest score allocated for GDP growth.
AUSTIN, TX—Opportunity zones are a hot topic in commercial real estate circles and COMMERCIALCafe, a subsidiary of Yardi Systems, seized on the “opportunity” to compile a list of the US counties with the highest investment potential. The number cruncher narrowed down and analyzed 306 counties in the process.
COMMERCIALCafe’s study allocated points for the following indicators: employment, GDP, population growth, poverty rates, the educational attainment level of the labor force and the number of eligible opportunity zones within each area. The study also details the fiscal benefits of the program, the selection criteria for opportunity zones and the importance of public sector investment along with private capital in these areas.
A list of 8,764 approved opportunity zones provided by the US Department of Treasury was used in the study. COMMERCIALCafe discarded unincorporated areas as well as counties with fewer than five opportunity zones. Any entries with incomplete data for the chosen indicators were eliminated. Points for all indicators were distributed directly proportional to respective value, except for the poverty rate indicator, for which points were awarded in inverse proportion.
When the study was complete, COMMERCIALCafe found that 32 Texas counties made the list, with Travis County scoring the highest for opportunity zone investment in the nation with 65.9 points. Travis was followed by Galveston County which landed eighth with 60.6 points and Harris County with 59.8 points, coming in at number 12. Texas was followed by California with 27 counties, Florida with 22 counties and New York with 17 counties.
“Earlier this month, Texas submitted a number of 628 census tracts to be approved by the Treasury as opportunity zones. Among these, there are 35 opportunity zones within the Austin metro area; 21 within the limits of Travis County,” Diana Sabau with COMMERCIALCafe tells GlobeSt.com. “Travis County received the highest overall scores of all the Texas counties that made the cut in our list of top opportunity zones for investment. If we break the ranking down by individual metrics, it has the sixth highest score allocated for GDP growth (16.9 points), in a list topped by Harrison County with 20 points. Travis County takes the lead in the number of points awarded for 25 year old workers with a bachelor’s degree, fetching 9.9 points, closely followed by Fort Bend County and Brazos County with 7.64 points.”
Sabau says one of the main concerns regarding the impact of opportunity zones on local communities is the displacement occurring in already gentrifying areas. “Seeking to address this issue, an Austin city council resolution passed last October has been an attempt to encourage developments like grocery stores and other small businesses within the opportunity zones, which could answer some of those communities’ actual needs, while also making sure these projects still look attractive to investors,” Sabau tells GlobeSt.com.