Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Northam includes Newport News in federal Opportunity Zone nominations

(City of Newport News)

NEWPORT NEWS  — Gov. Ralph Northam included seven Newport News census tracts among the 212 Opportunity Zones he nominated to the U.S. Department of Treasury last week, according to city officials.

Opportunity Zones are a new revitalization tool resulting from the Federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

The zones will allow investors to receive tax benefits on currently unrealized capital gains by investing those gains in census tracts designated as Opportunity Zones. The federal program is designed to drive long-term capital investment to low-income urban and rural communities, according to a news release from the city.

The process for Northam’s nominations included input from localities to recognize the needs and opportunities at the level of government closest to investors and residents. The U.S. Treasury Department has 30 days to respond to the governor’s nominations and is expected to accept and approve them as nominated, establishing Virginia’s Opportunity Zones by late spring of this year, officials said.

However, the rules associated with qualification of investments must also be written at the federal level and are not anticipated to be formalized until later this year.

John Mangalonzo
John Mangalonzohttp://wydaily.com
John Mangalonzo (john@localdailymedia.com) is the managing editor of Local Voice Media’s Virginia papers – WYDaily (Williamsburg), Southside Daily (Virginia Beach) and HNNDaily (Hampton-Newport News). Before coming to Local Voice, John was the senior content editor of The Bellingham Herald, a McClatchy newspaper in Washington state. Previously, he served as city editor/content strategist for USA Today Network newsrooms in St. George and Cedar City, Utah. John started his professional journalism career shortly after graduating from Lyceum of The Philippines University in 1990. As a rookie reporter for a national newspaper in Manila that year, John was assigned to cover four of the most dangerous cities in Metro Manila. Later that year, John was transferred to cover the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines. He spent the latter part of 1990 to early 1992 embedded with troopers in the southern Philippines as they fought with communist rebels and Muslim extremists. His U.S. journalism career includes reporting and editing stints for newspapers and other media outlets in New York City, California, Texas, Iowa, Utah, Colorado and Washington state.

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