Benton Blaine, vice president with McGuireWoods Consulting’s infrastructure and economic development team, joined industry experts in Dallas, Texas this month for the Opportunity Zone SuperConference. The conference brought together investors, fund sponsors, real estate developers, startups, traditional businesses, state and city governments and other public officials.

Blaine presented on the substantial tax benefits of opportunity zone investing, and discussed how to best navigate the process, leveraging all aspects of an opportunity while mitigating risk.

Here are four takeaways from the conference:

1. Opportunity zones likely overlap with areas targeted for investment from state and local officials. 
2. Economic development incentives, gained by investing in targeted areas, can be stacked with opportunity zone benefits.
3. The incentives can take the form of cash grants, reduced cost land, utility cost/rate reductions, withholding tax reimbursement, property tax abatements, and more.
4. By leveraging incentives, in addition to opportunity zones, projects can see a material reduction in upfront and recurring costs, thus increasing the project’s return on investment.