Leaders make pitch for opportunity zones

Little Rock officials are marketing the city’s opportunity zones to potential investors in an effort to encourage cash flow into disadvantaged districts.

Mayor Frank Scott Jr. and U.S. Rep. French Hill of Little Rock unveiled a prospectus Monday at events with stakeholders from the public and private sectors. The prospectus outlined industrial activity and primary investments in the designated districts, and it touted the federal initiative as a way to revitalize the disadvantaged areas.

Opportunity zones are federally designated, economically distressed census tracts where, under certain conditions, new investments may be eligible for preferential tax treatment. Federal provisions that created opportunity zones were included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

Of the 85 designated opportunity zones in Arkansas, four are in Little Rock and encompass the eastern part of the city, much of downtown and the 12th Street area. Three more designated zones are in North Little Rock.

Little Rock Planning Director Jamie Collins said the department has spent the past several months putting together a pitch book for potential investors that highlights business activity in the designated areas over the past decade, as well as land uses and employment demographics.

Scott said taking advantage of opportunity zones is something Little Rock can do to encourage entrepreneurs to invest in areas that are in need of revitalization. Public officials should be intentional in making the conditions right for development, and the private sector should follow, Scott said.

“We have to make certain that we have infrastructure to even have that development in the first place,” he said.

Hill, a Republican, noted that opportunity zones are not a new idea — the concept originated in the 1970s — but it was one of the first things he worked on with Scott, a Democrat, after Scott was sworn in as mayor.

“We want to make Little Rock the best city that it can be — growing, safe and open to all,” Hill said.

Audience member Reginald Hampton, a longtime developer in the city’s south end, asked during two panel discussions Monday morning why minority-group entrepreneurs hadn’t seen success before.

“I heard them say over and over again that the white man is doing to us what they did to the Indians. I see the rich get richer and the poor get poorer,” Hampton said. “This is a great opportunity, but I don’t see black folk at this time being able to take advantage of what we’re talking about here today.”

Scott said he wanted to ensure that opportunity-zone development was controlled growth, not gentrification.

“We have to understand that there are families that live there now, and so we have to be very respectful of those families that live there and make certain that everyone is growing as part of that process,” the mayor said.

Panelist Lisa Ferrell, who developed the Rockwater Village community in a North Little Rock opportunity zone, said local leaders should focus on community needs first.

“One of the things that I think city officials can do is go to communities and say: ‘What businesses do you need in the community? What skills training do you need? What opportunities do you need?’” Ferrell said. “It’s not just about the capital-gains tax benefit that goes to the few.”