Opportunity zones haverapidly become one of the most popular investment models incommercial real estate. While capital has flooded into theopportunity zone funds, development starts have been slower. Thatis largely because there has been a lack of clarity regardingopportunity zone regulation.

"There has been a slight delay in an increase in development inopportunity zone areas," Richard Lara, presidentand CEO of RAAM Construction, tells GlobeSt.com."That said, this is largely due to a lack of clarity regarding someof the regulations. Many investors and developers were awaitingfinal clarification on the regulations before making the full leapinto the space."

However, now that the final regulations have been released,there is clarity in the new model, and likely new projects willbegin to break ground more frequently. "Now that the finalregulations were released by Treasury at the very end of last year,we will likely see an influx of development in many opportunityzone areas across the U.S.," says Lara. "The final regulationsprovided answers to a lot of pending questions for many investorsand developers, which we believe will aid in providing moreconfidence when structuring opportunity zone deals this year."